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
- Macron Urges China’s Xi to Help Negotiate End to War in Ukraine — Beijing seeks to position itself as an increasingly vital actor of global diplomacy.
- Chinese Consumers’ Lack of Confidence Is Causing a Rush of Mortgage Prepayments — Worries about future income levels, poor returns on investment push borrowers to repay debt early.
- Chinese Church Group Flies to the U.S. After Three Years in Self-Exile — All 63 members of the Shenzhen Holy Reformed Church boarded flights bound for Texas following detention in Thailand.
- King Dollar Still Looks Safe From the Yuan — Weaponizing the dollar creates incentives for change. But as an alternative, the yuan still has serious limitations.
- TikTok’s Next Big Ban Showdown Is in Montana — Chinese-owned app is lobbying against bill to ban TikTok for all Montanans, in effort to avoid domino effect.
The Financial Times
- How Taiwan and the US managed the risk of Tsai’s meeting with McCarthy — Beijing’s muted military response shows political pragmatism but tensions remain, analysts warn.
- China’s fertility treatment rules push single women to Hong Kong — Beijing faces calls to ease access to egg freezing and IVF amid demographic crisis.
- South Korean biotech companies seek to diversify from China as US tensions rise — Washington has designated the sector as a strategic industry and may introduce export curbs.
- Xi warns against escalating Ukraine crisis as he meets Macron — China’s leader holds back from publicly committing to more active role in influencing Moscow.
The New York Times
- How AI and DNA Are Unlocking the Mysteries of Global Supply Chains — Firms are turning to advanced technologies to help answer a surprisingly tricky question: Where do products really come from?
- Xi and Macron Call for Ukraine Peace Talks, but the Path Is Murky — It is not clear that the Chinese and French leaders — much less Russia and Ukraine — have compatible terms for talks or peace, and Mr. Xi has not publicly agreed to pressure Moscow to negotiate.
- Airbus to Double Production in China as It Moves Ahead With New Orders — The French plane maker announced the agreement despite pressure on Europe from the Biden administration to isolate Beijing.
Caixin
- Chinese Developer Sinic to Be Forced Off Hong Kong Bourse — The teetering property firm failed to meet the exchange’s requirements to resume trading in its shares, which have been suspended for over 18-months.
- ByteDance’s Douyin and Tencent Reach Video Cooperation Deal as Tensions Thaw — Under the agreement, the firms will explore working together on joint promotion of long and short videos as well as generation of secondary content.
South China Morning Post
- Alibaba unveils ChatGPT alternative Tongyi Qianwen under cloud services after Baidu’s high-profile Ernie Bot launch — Alibaba is the latest Chinese tech firm to follow through with a home-grown alternative to ChatGPT weeks after a similar product from Baidu received a mixed reception.
- Good Friday religious marches held across Hong Kong but most members told to keep faces visible — Organisers required to ensure compliance with Beijing-imposed national security law.
- China-linked US$2.3 billion battery factory in Michigan raises community alarm — Gotion High-tech’s American subsidiary and township officials tout 2,000 new jobs within 10 years, but some residents fear ‘one square mile of CCP’.
Bloomberg
- China Hits Back at Tsai Trip By Sanctioning Reagan Library — China hit back over Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen’s visits to the US by leveling largely symbolic sanctions on the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, other organizations and a key envoy.
- Alibaba Touts ChatGPT Challenger Ahead of Main Event — Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. is inviting users to test the company’s in-house artificial intelligence tool, the latest attempt from a Chinese tech behemoth to rival OpenAI’s powerful ChatGPT.
- Former Google CEO Rejects AI Research Pause Over China Fears — Putting a temporary pause on artificial intelligence development would only hand an advantage to competitors in China, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt said, after more than 1,000 researchers signed a letter warning of the consequences of moving too quickly on AI research.
Reuters
- ByteDance’s Douyin and Tencent bury hatchet, reach cooperation pact — Douyin, owned by tech giant ByteDance, said in a statement it is now authorised to use Tencent Video content and rules about how secondary content can be generated have also been clarified.
- China imposes sanctions on Taiwan’s US envoy, US institutions — China has imposed further sanctions on Hsiao Bi-khim, Taiwan’s de facto ambassador to the United States, prohibiting her and family members from entering the mainland, Hong Kong and Macau, state media reported on Friday.
- Ex-DOJ lawyer tells jury he met with Chinese to further illegal lobbying campaign — A former U.S. Department of Justice attorney told a jury on Thursday that he simultaneously worked on behalf of hip-hop artist Pras Michel, as part of an illegal foreign influence campaign to persuade the Trump administration to return a dissident to China.
Other Publications
- The Washington Post: China’s military aims to launch 13,000 satellites to rival Elon Musk’s Starlink — In the race for low-earth orbit dominance, Beijing is years behind SpaceX and worried about the threat to its national security.
