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 Sentenced Scholar of Uyghur Culture to Life in Prison, Rights Group Says — Rahile Dawut is a widely respected researcher of the minority group’s religious and cultural traditions who hasn’t been seen since 2017.
- How China Could Veto $100 Oil — Strong Chinese demand looks unlikely as oil prices soar.
- India Suspends Visas for Canadians as Rift Over Killing Deepens — Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has pressed New Delhi to cooperate with its investigation into the shooting of Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
- When a Congressman Challenged Disney on China, It Laid Off Beijing Staff — Disney’s China layoffs led to technical malfunctions, delayed efforts to troubleshoot.
- Amazon’s New Challenge: Bargain Retailers That Are Playing a Different Game — U.S. e-commerce giant weighing how to respond to growing threat from Shein and Temu, two online shopping competitors.
- China’s Economic Worries Spur a Different Kind of Shopping Spree — Mainland tourists are flocking to Hong Kong in search of investment-focused insurance. One of the big beneficiaries: HSBC.
- Microsoft’s Activision Deal Clears Main Hurdle as U.K. Regulator Accepts Changes — U.K. Competition and Markets Authority said that a new deal should lessen any harm to competition in cloud gaming.
- To Beat Starbucks in China, Homegrown Chains Open a New Cafe Every Hour — Starbucks is making a big push, but other companies are pushing even harder as China moves closer to becoming the country with the most coffee shops in the world.
The Financial Times
- EU trade commissioner to seek relief from export barriers during China visit — Valdis Dombrovskis will face resistance over EV anti-subsidy probe as he pushes to rebalance €400bn deficit.
- Smartphones/China: homegrown rivals eye Apple’s market share — Local brands will struggle as long as iPhones continue to be regarded as status symbols.
- US and China to launch economy and finance working groups to stabilise ties — Move to increase engagement follows Treasury secretary Janet Yellen’s visit to Beijing in July.
- How Xi Jinping is taking control of China’s stock market — By using listing and trading rules to direct capital into sectors that fit his priorities, the president wants the market to serve the state.
- Chinese investors rush into local government bonds — Central government support for local financing vehicles helped lift debt sales in August to near-record levels.
- Venture firm GGV Capital to split off China business after US pressure — Move follows similar decision by rival Sequoia Capital and Biden order to limit American investment in Chinese tech.
The New York Times
- Gold Mining Is Poisoning the Planet With Mercury — Ten years after an international treaty to ban mercury, the toxic metal continues to poison. The reason might have to do with your wedding ring.
- A Chinese Journalist Gave #MeToo Victims a Voice. Now She’s on Trial. — Huang Xueqin, the journalist, and Wang Jianbing, a labor activist, have been accused of inciting subversion as the authorities expand a campaign to quash dissent.
- Real Estate Crisis Triggers New Alarms Over China’s Shadow Banks — A financially troubled firm has stopped paying investors, risking panic and testing the Chinese government’s resolve to take on debts from its property crisis.
Caixin
- Everbright Securities to Pay $361 Million in MPS Fiasco — State-owned venture agrees to settle lawsuits by China Merchants Bank and HuaRui Bank in failed 2016 investment in U.K. sports media company.
- Dozens of Chinese Nationals Deported From Indonesia for Cross-Border Telecom Fraud — The suspects are allegedly involved in over 100 “nude chat” extortion cases that have been filed across the country, the Ministry of Public Security said in a statement.
- China Tells SOEs, Local Governments: Pay Your Overdue Bills — Policymakers step up support for the private sector to shore up the economic recovery and boost market confidence.
South China Morning Post
- China’s top political adviser Wang Huning urges support for Xinjiang in education, culture and industry — Wang Huning stresses role of strategy, which has come under US criticism, to pair coastal areas with cities in far western region and highlights need for social stability and ‘strong sense of community of the Chinese nation’.
- Rocket failure marks rare setback for China’s satellite network plans — Top performer Ceres-1 ends successful launch streak, fails to deliver latest addition to Jilin-1 constellation’s 100-plus satellites.
- Leading Chinese university becomes first to remove English requirements for students — Xian Jiaotong University says students will no longer have to pass the College English Test to receive a place or to graduate.
- Chinese Vice-President Han Zheng tells UN General Assembly to oppose ‘hegemonism’ — ‘A small number of countries have arbitrarily imposed illegal and unilateral sanctions,’ vice-president says, using language often used to criticise Washington.
Nikkei Asia
- Qualcomm slashes jobs in China and Taiwan amid smartphone slump — Move follows client Huawei’s release of phones powered with own chips.
- U.S. envoy Emanuel slams China again in new tweet — Post on Beijing’s Japan seafood embargo follows report he was asked to stop taunts.
- Laos debt at ‘critical level’ with China payments still opaque — Economists say ASEAN nation obscuring true scale of crisis.
- China bars 3 Indian athletes from Asian Games amid territory spat — Modi’s sports minister cancels visit to the host nation in protest.
- Opinion: Imitators are adopting Chinese tactics to quash online critics — Allies like Cambodia and Bangladesh are deploying fake voices to drown out dissent. By Sam Rainsy.
Bloomberg
- China Mulls Easing Foreign Stake Limits to Lure Global Funds — China is considering relaxing the rules that cap foreign ownership in domestic publicly traded firms, people familiar with the matter said, as it seeks to lure global funds back to its $9.4 trillion stock market.
- Anwar Calls China’s Explanation of Disputed Map ‘Reassuring’ — Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said China’s explanation of a new map that appeared to expand its claims over disputed land and waters in the South China Sea was “reassuring,” as he advocated for nations in the region to resolve maritime issues among themselves.
- “China is Rising”: Ultra-Rich Gen Zs Flock Home as US-China Tensions Grow — Even billionaires’ scions are struggling to bridge the US-China rift.
Reuters
- Philippines weighs legal options against China over coral reef ‘destruction’ — The Philippines is studying the possibility of filing a second legal case before the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in the Hague, Guevarra said on Friday.
- Shein shifts shipping strategy to bring China-made goods closer to US shoppers — Shein, known for its $10 tops and $5 biker shorts, until recently has made many American purchasers face wait times of up to two weeks or more to receive their goods.
- US finalizes rules to prevent China from benefiting from $52 billion in chips funding — The regulation is the final hurdle before the Biden administration can begin awarding $39 billion in subsidies for semiconductor production.
- China, India lead Asia’s biggest hydropower crunch in decades — Higher use of polluting fuels such as coal to meet electricity demand spikes and supply shortages underscore the challenges of lowering emissions.
- China’s AI ‘war of a hundred models’ heads for a shakeout — China now has at least 130 large language models (LLMs), accounting for 40% of the global total and just behind the United States’ 50% share, according to brokerage CLSA.
Other Publications
- The Washington Post: China’s quest for human genetic data spurs fears of a DNA arms race — The pandemic helped China scoop up DNA from countries around the world.
- The Strategist: ASPI’s critical tech tracker updates: China’s lead in advanced sensors is overwhelming — China’s research in several advanced sensor technologies vital to military navigation and targeting is overwhelmingly ahead of the three AUKUS partners.
- Foreign Policy: Can the U.S. and China Cooperate on Green Technology Again? — A recent book makes the case for collaboration in an increasingly competitive industry.
- Foreign Policy: No, the World Is Not Multipolar — The idea of emerging power centers is popular but wrong—and could lead to serious policy mistakes.
- POLITICO: Tai targets China, climate in call to reform WTO — The global trading body needs to “open its eyes” to China’s economic policies and the realities of climate change, the U.S. trade chief Katherine Tai said in an exclusive interview.
- Big Data China: China Is Growing Old Before It Becomes Rich: Does It Matter? — Can the Chinese government respond effectively and quickly to the challenges posed by demographic trends?
