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
- Ukraine, China Meeting Shows No Breakthrough to End Russian Invasion – Kyiv’s foreign minister tells Chinese envoy Ukraine can’t accept any proposals that mean losing territory to Russia.
- Shein Makes a Comeback in India, Teams Up with Reliance Retail – Shein, whose app was banned in India in 2020, is seeking to tap in to the country’s consumer market and diversify its supply chain.
- Microsoft Works to Fix Problem With Skype Calls to China — The Skype connection issue comes as Beijing doubles down on restricting information channels linked to the outside world.
- Chinese Dissidents’ New Weapon Against Beijing: Sell-Out New York Comedy Shows – Exiled activists rewrite playbook for resistance after being muzzled at home.
The Financial Times
- The debt ceiling crisis is distracting Biden from his geopolitical agenda — Cutting Asia-Pacific trip short to avert domestic catastrophe underlines US president’s foreign policy weaknesses.
- Xi Jinping courts Central Asia as Russian influence weakens — Chinese president holds two-day summit with leaders of region crucial to security, trade and energy.
- Alibaba kicks off unit IPOs as revenue growth weakens — Chinese tech giant to list logistics and grocery arms and spin off cloud division in big restructuring.
The New York Times
- Ukraine and China Will Dominate G7 Summit, but a New Threat Lurks: A.I. — The leaders are expected to hold their first talks on a common regulatory approach to generative artificial intelligence.
- Montana Governor Signs Total Ban of TikTok in the State – The legislation is the most extreme prohibition of the app in the nation and will almost certainly face legal challenges.
- As the U.S. Attends the G7, China Hosts a Summit of Its Own — Xi Jinping of China is meeting with leaders of five countries in Central Asia, a region crucial to his geopolitical ambitions.
- What Americans Don’t Understand About China — A lot gets lost in translation. The Chinese-born economist Keyu Jin wants to change that.
Caixin
- China Deploys Former Everbright Chairman to New Financial Commission — Wang Jiang’s new role was revealed during the inauguration ceremony of another financial regulatory body Thursday.
- In Depth: Chinese Court Ruling Sets Off Debate About Bond Fraud Compensation — The decision offers more clarity to how judges are interpreting a set of 2022 supreme court provisions about lawsuits over ‘misrepresentation’ in the securities market.
- Chinese Domestic Air Travel Bounces Back to Pre-Pandemic Levels — April flights within China top the pre-pandemic level by 3.4%, though the recovery for international travel continues to lag behind.
South China Morning Post
- China’s semiconductor developers eye shift to RISC-V architecture amid growing chip demand in cars, data centres and AI, executive says — China’s growing demand for chips used in electric vehicles, servers in data centres and artificial intelligence applications provides a vast opportunity for RISC-V processors to flourish.
- US-based Forrester Research to close China office amid Beijing’s crackdown of foreign advisories — The US technology research and advisory firm is also laying off most of its analysts in the country, sources said.
- China electric cars: Beijing urges faster roll-out of charging stations as it looks to rural motorists to boost flagging sales — The government is going all out to encourage people in remote areas to switch to battery-powered cars, calling for charging infrastructure to be rolled out faster, as well as cash incentives and models tailored to their needs.
- Micron expected to get US$1.5 billion from Japan for next-gen chips weeks after Beijing launched probe into the firm — The expected incentives for the last company making memory chips in the US come as Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida meets with top chip firms, including TSMC and Intel.
Nikkei Asia
- China has too much invested in AI to smother its development – New rules for generative tools likely to stay broad and vague.
- China’s delayed funeral data clouds extent of December COVID surge – Lag in official release seen impacting policy adjustments moving forward.
Bloomberg
- Alibaba Sales Growth Disappoints With Chinese Rebound Uncertain — Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. again posted single-digit revenue growth, reinforcing concerns that a Chinese consumer spending rebound may be farther out than anticipated.
- Seed Giant Syngenta Moves Forward With Shanghai IPO Plan — Syngenta Group is preparing to move forward with plans for its initial public offering, less than two months after the Shanghai stock exchange abruptly canceled the firm’s hearing to join the Nasdaq-like Star board.
Reuters
- Central Asia forges ties with China as Xi touts ‘enduring’ friendship – Central Asian heads of state converged in China’s historic city of Xian on Thursday for one-on-ones with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
- China’s domestic travel recovery marred by anti-spending ‘special forces’ – A new trend in China has emerged which is casting a shadow over a post-pandemic recovery in domestic tourism.
Other Publications
- CyberScoop: Zoom executives knew about key elements of plan to censor Chinese activists — Pressured by the Chinese government to comply with censorship guidelines, Zoom drafted guidelines to suppress content critical of Beijing.
- The Guardian: China’s ambassador to Australia says Aukus an ‘unnecessary’ use of taxpayer money and ‘not a good idea’ – Xiao Qian suggests improvement in Australian relationship with Beijing possible but would take ‘mutual respect’.
- CSIS: Conservation with Chinese Characteristics: China’s New National Park System – Beijing has announced plans to develop a country-wide national park system by 2030 to protect some of its most vulnerable ecosystems.
- The Economist: Why China fears Starlink – China fears that America, through Starlink, is gobbling up territory in low-Earth orbit.
- AP: China asks Australia to increase search for 39 aboard capsized boat as 2 bodies reportedly found – Xiao Qian said China wanted to coordinate with “friendly countries”, in the search and rescue effort.
- Politico: ‘It’s just crazy’: How the U.S.-China energy race imperils the climate fight – Beijing’s control of the technology behind batteries and solar panels is complicating Washington’s efforts to make a swift transition from fossil fuels.