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 Evergrande Avoids a Debt Disaster—for Now — The company was given until late January 2024 to reach a debt restructuring deal.
- Evergrande Shares Rise as Court Grants More Time for Debt Talks — China Evergrande’s shares rose after a court granted the Chinese property developer more time to work out a plan to restructure billions of dollars in debt.
- Activist Flees Hong Kong After Patriotic Education Trip to China — Agnes Chow says she was escorted across border by national security officials as a condition for getting her passport back, but is now in Canada.
- Pressure Is Building in China’s Financial Plumbing — Signs of indigestion in China’s money markets are an ominous sign—particularly given shadow-bank troubles and enormous government debt.
- Opinion: Sen. Dan Sullivan on How to Deter a Chinese Invasion of Taiwan — It requires a three-layered approach.
The Financial Times
- Evergrande: liquidation would leave China with 1.5mn angry homebuyers — Offshore creditors have shown little enthusiasm for the group’s debt restructuring proposals, and one cannot blame them.
- Chinese developer Evergrande wins more time for restructuring deal — Hong Kong court gives indebted group until January to refine proposal to creditors.
- Evergrande creditors make last push to avert liquidation order — Indebted Chinese property developer faces winding-up demand in Hong Kong court on Monday.
- Russian army snaps up Chinese off-road buggies popular in US — Purchase of hundreds of all-terrain vehicles made by Shandong Odes could put exports to west at risk.
- Chinese borrowers default in record numbers as economic crisis deepens — More than 8mn people are blacklisted by authorities after missed payments on mortgages and business loans.
- US, UK and Australia move to track ‘emerging threats’ in space — Aukus security pact formed to counter advances by China will also boost autonomous naval systems.
- Opinion: EU must stand up for Taiwan at China summit — A mild line on Beijing’s threats to the island democracy would lead to far greater risks in the future. By Anders Fogh Rasmussen
The New York Times
- Agnes Chow, a Hong Kong Activist, Not Likely to Return from Canada — Ms. Chow said she had to make a “patriotic” visit to the mainland to get her passport back. The Hong Kong police condemned her intention to “openly jump bail.”
- The Wild Card in Taiwan’s Election: Frustrated Young Voters — An important bloc for the governing party, the island’s youth are focusing on bread-and-butter issues and have helped propel the rise of an insurgent party.
- China Evergrande Gets an Unexpected Reprieve From Liquidation — A Hong Kong judge postponed deciding whether to force the breakup of the property developer, which defaulted in 2021 on hundreds of billions of dollars in debt.
- Why More Chinese Are Risking Danger in Southern Border Crossings to U.S. — Trekking the perilous Darién Gap and seeking asylum are risks worth taking for migrants from China who have lost hope in the country’s future.
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Caixin
- Cover Story: Chinese Nickel Miners in Indonesia Face Threat from Falling Prices — A nickel rush in Indonesia by Chinese mining companies over the last decade may come to a halt as falling prices for the metal used in steel production makes processing the material in the Southeast Asian country less attractive for China-based producers.
- Analysis: What’s Behind China’s Diverging Economic Data — The overall economy is going through a structural recovery rather than a full rebound, dragged down by issues such as insufficient total demand, dwindling external demand, declining prices, and waning business confidence.
- CATL Tight-Lipped About Indonesia Battery Materials Venture — Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd. (CATL) stayed mum about the progress of a $6 billion Indonesian mining-to-batteries project announced last year, after local media reports said the firm may finalize a deal this month for part of the project that involves electric vehicle (EV) battery materials production.
South China Morning Post
- China’s 2030 carbon reduction goal to spare food industry from reforms as security takes priority — China has set a goal of reaching peak carbon dioxide emissions before 2030, but a report says it is likely to delay efforts to deliver on agricultural sustainability goals until then.
- TikTok owner ByteDance joins generative AI frenzy with service for chatbot development, memo says — The social media giant has joined peers Baidu and Alibaba in offering AI model development as a service.
- AI video start-up Pika Labs sparks rally in stock of Chinese company helmed by father of co-founder, a Stanford dropout — Demi Guo, co-founder of Pika Labs, is the daughter of Guo Huaqiang, former chairman of Hangzhou-based IT services company Sunyard Technology.
Nikkei Asia
- Will China really invade? Caution and optimism in Taiwan — Complacency over island’s security grows ahead of January presidential vote.
- China-North Korea truck traffic resumes in sign of reopening — Vehicles seen on Dandong-Sinuiju bridge as Pyongyang slowly lifts border shutdown.
- Agnes Chow departure ‘challenges rule of law,’ Hong Kong police say — After moving to Canada, democracy activist says she may never return home.
- Opinion: Hong Kong and China scholars and students need to be heard — Foreign universities and governments have to protect free expression of views. By Joseph Yi
Bloomberg
- China Youths Swap City Dreams for Country Living as Jobs Crisis Mounts — Gong Chengqiang used to make 200,000 yuan ($28,000) a year in Hangzhou in a tech company before it shuttered during Covid. He now grows strawberries in rural Zhejiang province, and is expecting to lose at least the same amount after 40% of his harvest was destroyed by disease.
- China Rips US for Seeing It as ‘Enemy’ After Raimondo Remarks — China criticized the US for seeing it as a threat after Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo defended efforts to deprive the Asian nation of cutting-edge semiconductors, underscoring the fragility of recently stabilized ties.
- China Says US Navy Ship ‘Seriously Violated’ Its Sovereignty — China criticized the US after an American warship sailed in disputed waters in the South China Sea, underscoring lingering military tensions between the nations.
Reuters
- China says summit with EU leaders to discuss global economic issues — An China-EU summit will be held on Thursday in Beijing, China’s foreign ministry said on Monday, where leaders of both sides will discuss strategic and global economic issues of common interest.
- McDonald’s raises China bet, bucking Western firms’ derisking trend — The decision by McDonald’s to take greater control of its China business and expand aggressively in the face of a consumer slowdown and geopolitical tensions seems risky – but the potential pay-off is great, analysts say.
- Western start-ups seek to break China’s grip on rare earths refining — Start-up tech firms are racing to transform the way rare earths are refined for the clean energy transition, a push aimed at turbocharging the West’s expansion into the niche sector that underpins billions of electronic devices.
Other Publications
- BBC News: Couple’s property ordeal captivates Chinese internet — A young Chinese couple whose struggles to own a flat shed light on the country’s economic downturn have captivated the nation.
- Politico: Pentagon: US arms industry struggling to keep up with China — A draft copy of the new National Defense Industrial Strategy says American companies can’t build weapons fast enough to meet global demand.
- NPR: Taiwan is driving China-U.S. tensions. Meet the person right in the middle — The top U.S. representative in Taiwan, Sandra Oudkirk, is trying to navigate that tricky terrain.
- MIT Technology Review: Users are doling out justice on a Chinese food delivery app — Is it just a fun game while you wait for your lunch to arrive—or a grassroots experiment in democracy?
- The Information: The Electric: How to Use Chinese Battery Material in US EVs — The administration left a narrow pathway for automakers such as Ford to employ Chinese battery technology in their electric vehicles.