Good Morning. Welcome to The Wire’s daily news roundup. Each day, our staff gathers the top China business, finance, and economics headlines from a selection of the world’s leading news organizations.
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The Wall Street Journal
- China Is Sending Its Corruption Hunters to a Country Near You — G-20 nations among first destinations in move that risks intensifying alarm over expansion of Beijing’s overseas activities.
- Taiwan’s President Lands in the U.S. Amid Threats From China — Beijing says Tsai Ing-wen’s planned meeting with Speaker Kevin McCarthy could provoke retaliation.
- Zelensky Urges China’s Xi to Visit Ukraine — Ukrainian president warns that Moscow would be emboldened by a victory in the eastern city of Bakhmut.
- Saudi Arabia Strengthens Relations With China Amid Strained U.S. Ties — Riyadh is joining a Beijing-led political and security bloc; the two countries have also recently signed multibillion-dollar energy deals.
- Huawei’s Meng Wanzhou Steps Closer to U.S.-China Tech War Frontline as Chairwoman — Finance chief to rotate into post atop Chinese telecoms company as U.S. considers tighter sanctions.
- Hong Kong Arrests Show No Letup in Beijing-Driven Crackdown on Dissent — Political opponents of government given no room to maneuver under sweeping national security law.
- China Wants to Be at Center of New World Order, Top EU Official Says — Trade bloc needs to defend its security and economic interests, she says ahead of trip to China.
- Disney Lays Off More Than 300 Streaming-Focused Employees in China — Company has begun first wave of a plan to cut 7,000 jobs.
- Video: Taiwan President Makes Transit Trip to U.S. Amid Tensions With China — Tsai Ing-wen made a stop in New York on her way to visit Guatemala and Belize.
- Opinion: The Korean Model for Taiwan — In the 1990s, even Beijing abandoned its rejection of the ‘one country, two governments’ formulation. By Hu Ping and Perry Link
The Financial Times
- EU strikes back against China’s ‘divide and conquer’ tactics — Ursula von der Leyen says bloc must develop ‘new defensive tools’ in face of an increasingly assertive Beijing.
- China’s premier warns against conflict in Asia amid US tensions — Li Qiang calls for peace one day after Beijing threatens Taiwan over its president’s visit to California.
- Alibaba may cede control of new businesses if they list after break-up — Restructured Chinese tech group also plans to continue divestments in portfolio companies, says finance chief.
- Hong Kong’s reopening boosts optimism in wealth management — Amy Lo, who chairs the executive committee of the city’s Private Wealth Management Association, says it still has allure for Chinese clients.
- Saudi Arabia moves closer to joining Chinese security club — Beijing’s push for Mideast influence gathers momentum as Riyadh takes step towards political and trade alliance.
- Alibaba: a bouquet of six small poppies for party bosses — Break-up of group may placate regulators but is unlikely to make its businesses more competitive.
- Opinion: The risks of China’s regulatory shake-up — Greater centralisation in a politicised financial system may lead to more instability. By George Magnus
The New York Times
- The Undoing of Guo Wengui, Billionaire Partner to Trump Allies — He cultivated powerful allies and built an empire in China. Then, fleeing charges, he turned his charms on America. Now the law has caught up with him.
- Even as U.S. Beckons, European Leaders Head to Beijing — China is trying to improve relations with the European Union just as the United States is pushing the bloc to pick sides.
- China’s Soccer Experiment Flopped. Now It May Be Over. — China poured billions into its bid to become a major player in the world’s most popular sport. A decade later, it has little to show for that investment.
- TikTok’s Owner Pushes a New App, While Under Washington’s Glare — ByteDance, the Chinese company behind TikTok, is trying to woo popular social media creators to Lemon8 before it is officially introduced this year.
Caixin
- Four Things to Know About How China’s PE Funds Are Helping Revive Real Estate — China’s efforts to revive the country’s embattled real estate sector have taken another step forward with the opening of applications from private equity (PE) companies to set up property-focused investment funds.
- Zhongwang, Top IPO of 2009, Kicked of Hong Kong Exchange — Aluminum giant controlled by Liu Zhongtian, once China’s richest man, didn’t report financial results since 2021 amid liquidity crunch.
- SenseTime to Roll Out Its Own ChatGPT Rival in Mid-2023 — Chinese AI leader joins the global rush for chatbots sparked by the OpenAI product, along with China’s Baidu.
South China Morning Post
- Taiwan not expecting Beijing to react on same scale as last year’s Nancy Pelosi visit if President Tsai Ing-wen meets US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy — But the island’s security chief Tsai Ming-yen says he does not expect a response comparable to last year’s war games after the previous speaker visited Taipei.
- Scientists shrink China’s Starlink-killing microwave weapon with new power source — Small pulse power device generates 10-gigawatt electron beam that can be used to drive a high-power microwave weapon, scientists say.
Nikkei Asia
- Analysis: Xi’s chief of staff Cai Qi is symbol of powerful court — Former Beijing chief to oversee all aspects of security.
- BYD seeks to beat Volkswagen as China’s top automaker: chairman — Wang Chuanfu thanks Warren Buffett for longtime support despite recent sell-off.
Bloomberg
- China’s JD.com Proposes Separate HK Listings for Two Units — Two JD.com Inc. subsidiaries filed for Hong Kong initial public offerings on Thursday, paving the way for some of the year’s biggest debuts by a Chinese tech company.
- China Politburo Reviews Rules on Officials’ Personal Disclosures — The top decision-making body of China’s Communist Party reviewed rules governing the personal disclosures of top officials, a sign President Xi Jinping is holding firm on his anti-corruption campaign.
- TSMC Urges Taiwan to Make More Chip Gear and Materials at Home — Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.’s chairman called on the island to produce more of the equipment essential to advanced chipmaking, shoring up its already critical role in the $550 billion industry.
- Biden Risks New China Flashpoint With Tax Deal for Taiwan Firms — President Joe Biden wants to bring the world’s most sophisticated chipmakers to the US. Taiwan says he should offer them a better tax deal –- one that could infuriate China.
Reuters
- US aims to counter China’s influence in global institutions, Yellen says — The United States is working hard to counter China’s influence in international institutions and in lending to developing countries, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Wednesday.
- Analysis: Hiring spree by China’s debt-laden local governments fuels fiscal fears — Some of China’s most indebted local governments are on a hiring spree, a move that analysts say could put fragile regional finances under more strain.
- Republican Senator Rand Paul blocks bid to ban Chinese-owned TikTok — Paul on Wednesday blocked a bid to fast-track a ban of popular Chinese-owned social media app TikTok citing concerns about free speech and uneven treatment of social media companies.
The Economist
- Why the China-US contest is entering a new and more dangerous phase — Chinese officials rage at what they see as American bullying.
- Joe Biden attempts to defang the Chinese tiger — His policies stop short of full containment, but are intolerable to China anyway.
- America’s commercial sanctions on China could get much worse — And China could retaliate in kind.
- China is now an unlikely safe haven — The country’s financial risks are its own. America’s quickly become everybody else’s, too.
- Many wealthy people are considering leaving China — The stable city-state of Singapore is a favourite destination.
- There is bipartisan agreement among American politicians that TikTok is troubling — That does not mean it will be banned.
- Can America and China avoid another diplomatic crisis? — Taiwan’s president, Tsai Ing-wen, starts a sensitive visit to America.
- Chinese nationalists are annoyed about colonial-era place names — Vladivostock, Tibet and Hong Kong are in their sights.
- Alibaba breaks itself up in six — Investors cheer the move as signalling the end of China’s tech crackdown.
Other Publications
- Rest of World: U.S. Sen. Mark Warner on TikTok, China, and the end of techno-optimism — With the RESTRICT Act, Sen. Warner wants to reset the way the US treats China’s tech industry.
- Science: Pall of Suspicion — The National Institutes of Health’s “China initiative” has upended hundreds of lives and destroyed scores of academic careers.
- CNN: An influential Chinese blogger disappeared from the internet. This woman says she knows why — For 12 years, Program Think, an anonymous Chinese blogger, mounted an open challenge to China’s tightening authoritarian grip and expanding surveillance state. Then, in May 2021, Program Think suddenly went silent.
