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
- How Bad Is China’s Economy? Millions of Young People Are Unemployed and Disillusioned — The nation needs workers, but college graduates shun low-skill work. Many have opted out of the job market and are ‘lying flat.’
- North Korea Celebrates Major Holiday with Special Guests From China and Russia — Pyongyang expected to hold large military parade, with first foreign delegations allowed in the country since the pandemic.
- Volkswagen’s EV Gambit in China Makes Sense — Deal will help VW and local startup Xpeng, both struggling in China’s huge—and cutthroat—electric-vehicle market.
- Microsoft Faces Mounting Scrutiny Over China-Linked Email Hack — Leading lawmaker accuses tech company of security negligence that enabled spying campaign.
The Financial Times
- Chinese electric-car shares boosted by VW investment in Xpeng — German group’s 5% stake will give it one seat as an ‘observer’ on Chinese carmaker’s board.
- VW cuts global delivery forecast after sales fall in China — German carmaker’s next capital markets day to be held in Beijing as it struggles to lift electric vehicle sales.
- Opinion: How the Brics nations risk becoming satellites of China — The grouping looks less like an emerging market steering committee and more like a fan club for Beijing. By Alan Beattie.
The New York Times
- After Ousting Qin Gang, China Erases Him and Evades Questions — China blasted “malicious hype” around the abrupt removal of Qin Gang. The Foreign Ministry’s fumbling response pointed to its diminished influence under Xi Jinping.
- Typhoon Doksuri Grazes Taiwan and the Philippines on Its Way to China — China’s coastal cities are bracing for Typhoon Doksuri, which is expected to make landfall on Friday, packing torrential rain and wind speeds equivalent to those of a Category 1 hurricane.
Caixin
- Half of China’s Provinces Fall Behind the National Economy — Of 28 jurisdictions reporting first six-months GDP, 15 miss the national average of 5.5% growth, largely reflecting the real estate slump and slack manufacturing demand.
- Alibaba Cloud Brings Meta’s Next-Gen AI Model to Mainland — Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s cloud unit said it has become the first Chinese mainland-based enterprise to support Meta Platforms Inc.’s new Llama artificial intelligence (AI) model.
- Evergrande’s EV Unit Bleeds $11.7 Billion in Red Ink Over Two Years — The carmaking unit suffered combined losses of about 84 billion yuan ($11.7 billion) for the past two years, according to its long-delayed earnings reports.
South China Morning Post
- China pledges to boost imports, encourage firms to invest in Turkey — Foreign Minister Wang Yi also tells Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan that Beijing will support businesses from the two nations to use local currency for trade settlement.
- Lift-off for Lingxi-03: China tests ultra-thin flexible solar wing for satellite network to rival Elon Musk’s Starlink — The Lingxi-03 and its bendable solar panels are developed by the Beijing-based start-up GalaxySpace.
- Why Musk’s ‘X’ will struggle to become a Chinese-style super-app — Inspired by China’s WeChat, Elon Musk is rebranding Twitter and wants to create a super-app where users will do all their finances as well as their socialising, but analysts are doubtful the strategy will work today.
- China approves 88 game licences ahead of ChinaJoy expo as Beijing seeks to revive video gaming industry — Latest approvals signal that Beijing is now focused on supporting the industry, especially smaller studios which are also struggling with economic headwinds.
Nikkei Asia
- Huawei to restart 5G mobile chip output as early as this year — Chinese tech giant lost access to global chipmaking partners in 2020.
- Two Koreas harden war-era alliances 70 years after combat ended — North hosts China, Russia delegations; South invites foreign veterans.
- Key chipmaking material prices soar ahead of Chinese export curbs — U.S., European gallium benchmarks up nearly 20% amid supply concerns.
Bloomberg
- China Tech Stocks on Brink of Bull Market on Stimulus Hopes — A gauge of China tech shares traded in Hong Kong closed just shy of entering a technical bull market over expectations of further stimulus for the nation’s flagging economy.
- Macron Seeks Bigger French Say in Pacific as China’s Clout Grows — Emmanuel Macron slammed what he called the imperialism of neighboring powers on a visit to the South Pacific, seeking to promote France as a balancing force in a region with strategic significance to both China and the US.
- China’s Military Probes Slew of Graft Issues Going Back to 2017 — Army is looking into possible leaks about projects and units.
- Pentagon Seeks Supply of Chip-Mineral Gallium After China Curbs Exports — Contract planned to get gallium from ‘existing waste streams’.
Reuters
- China open to deepen partnership with Indonesia, says Xi — Xi made the remarks in a meeting with Indonesian President Joko Widodo in the southwestern Chinese city of Chengdu.
- Obscure traders ship half Russia’s oil exports to India, China after sanctions — The number of little-known trading firms relied on by Moscow to export large volumes of crude exports to Asia has mushroomed in recent months.
- US willing to take ‘targeted’ actions against China for national security, Treasury official says — The Biden administration will not hesitate to take targeted actions against China to secure the national security interests of the U.S. and its allies and to protect human rights.
Other Publications
- Foreign Policy: Has China Peaked? — A debate on whether Beijing’s economic woes are temporary or terminal.
- Foreign Policy: China’s Threat to Ban Critical Minerals Exports Is a Bluff — Embargoes have unintended consequences—and would hurt China more than the West.
- The Washington Post: From salesman to ‘spy’: An inside account of arbitrary arrest in China — How Chinese law enforcement uses coercion, threats and trickery to build a case against someone they have decided has crossed its national security “red lines.”
- AP: France is investigating suspected smuggling to China and Russia of advanced chip technology — French magistrates have filed preliminary charges against two Chinese citizens and two other people from France in an investigation of a leading chip supplier.
- AP: Pakistan’s finance minister says China rolls over $2.4 billion loan for Islamabad for 2 years — The latest extension in loan maturities by Beijing was a boost to Pakistan’s fragile foreign exchange reserves, which are still only enough to pay the import bill for a period of two months.
- The Economist: Deflation is delaying China’s rise to economic superiority — The world’s second-biggest economy will become a more distant second this year.
- Rest of World: As EVs surge, so does nickel mining’s death toll — In the mineral-rich fringes of Indonesia, whose nickel will feed EV giants like Tesla, the deaths of miners continue to mount.
- Los Angeles Times: In an L.A. suburb, Chinese ‘border crossers’ seek a new life after harrowing journey — Monterey Park has long been a landing spot for immigrants from China with no English and a few hundred dollars in their pockets.
- The Guardian: Satellite data sheds light on China’s detention facilities in Tibet — China appears to have expanded use of high-security prisons as tool of repression in Tibet, researchers say.
