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’s Colossal Hidden-Debt Problem Is Coming to a Head — Mounting financial stress at local governments leads Moody’s to lower its outlook on China’s credit rating.
- Moody’s Cuts China Credit Outlook to Negative on Growing Debt Risks — The country has to provide more financial support to stressed local governments that have amassed trillions in hidden debt.
- The Rise of Temu’s Chinese Parent Will Reshape E-Commerce — PDD, the owner of fast-growing Temu, is muscling into the U.S. in a way Alibaba never did.
- Opinion: America’s Chance to Blunt China’s Encroachment — Offering better investment terms to developing countries is essential to prevent Beijing from controlling the supply of important natural resources. By Daniel Silverberg and Elena McGovern
The Financial Times
- Moody’s cuts China’s credit outlook to negative — Rating agency cites increasing risks to growth and a property sector crisis.
- Chinese investors drive rally in local government dollar bonds — Domestic buyers attracted by offshore bonds’ high yields and belief in implicit guarantee by Beijing.
- China tries to bridge economic policy ‘credibility gap’ — Annual policy meeting due this month will signal how much help government is prepared to give.
The New York Times
- China Evergrande Soared on the Property Boom. Here’s Why It Crashed. — Blame for the property developer’s downfall has been placed on Chinese lending policies, but poor corporate oversight was hiding in plain sight.
- China’s Rising Debt Spurs Moody’s to Lower Credit Outlook — The ratings agency cut its view of the country’s finances to negative, saying it was concerned about the potential cost of local government bailouts.
- U.S. Moves to Crack Down on Money Behind Fentanyl Trade — Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen will travel to Mexico this week for talks on countering illicit finance and fentanyl.
Caixin
- In Depth: Will Hong Kong’s Tax Tweaks End Its Real Estate Slump? — Rescue measures intended to coax mainland Chinese to buy residential property in Hong Kong have failed to woo, as the financial hub’s property market slump deepens.
- Chinese Mainland Court Verdicts Won’t Be Automatically Enforced in Hong Kong Under New Rule, Official Says — Legal verdicts in civil and commercial cases made on the Chinese mainland will not automatically take effect in Hong Kong even after a reciprocal enforcement regime comes into force next month.
- Nio Gears Up to Make Its Own EVs After Permit Approval, Equipment Purchases — Electric-vehicle (EV) startup Nio Inc. looks set to begin building its cars independently, announcing plans to acquire two manufacturing assets shortly after a subsidiary was added to a government database for companies approved to produce vehicles.
South China Morning Post
- ‘World first’: Chinese scientists create high-power microwave weapon for small drones — Game-changing microwave drone weapon could see a permanent shift in military power balance.
- China ‘disappointed’ at Moody’s downgrade of sovereign bonds outlook to negative — Moody’s Investors Service on Tuesday cut the outlook for Chinese sovereign bonds from stable to negative, while keeping their rating unchanged at A1, with Beijing calling their concerns ‘unnecessary’.
- China delivers nearly 100 parcels a person in 2023 as e-commerce giants Alibaba, JD.com, PDD slowly recover — Parcel deliveries reached a new high of 120 billion items this week, up 8.5 per cent from all of 2022, as e-commerce sees strong third-quarter recovery.
Nikkei Asia
- In EV tax rules, U.S. prefers China decoupling over decarbonization — Washington looks to further block China from supply chain, alarming EV makers.
- Global manufacturing inventories up 30% in 4 years as China slows — Industrial machinery among sectors hit hardest by falling demand.
- Evergrande founder Xu Jiayin remains a local hero despite woes — Villagers in hometown of Jutaigang praise embattled mogul for giving back.
Bloomberg
- Chilean Copper Smelter Project Drawing Interest From China — Chinese groups are exploring the possibility of participating in a copper smelting project in Chile — some of them in a bid to lock in supplies of a key metal in the energy transition.
- China Says Taliban Government Must Reform to Be Fully Recognized — China said the Taliban government in Afghanistan should make major changes to its style of governance in order for Beijing to officially recognize it.
- China’s Jinke Is Said to Near Pre-Restructuring Application — Chinese property developer Jinke Properties Group Co. Ltd. plans to seek as early as this week court approval to undergo a “pre-restructuring” process that would lead to new shareholders, according to people familiar with the matter.
- ByteDance, GoTo to Strike Deal to Save Indonesia TikTok Shop — ByteDance Ltd.’s TikTok has struck an agreement to invest in a unit of Indonesia’s GoTo Group and cooperate on an online shopping service, pioneering a template for e-commerce beyond Southeast Asia’s biggest economy.
Reuters
- China’s state banks seen supporting yuan as Moody’s cuts outlook – sources — China’s major state-owned banks were busy buying the yuan in currency markets on Tuesday to prevent it from weakening too much, two sources with knowledge of the matter said, with buying intensifying after rating agency Moody’s cut China’s outlook to negative in the afternoon.
- German firms diversify in Asia to reduce China risk – survey — Nearly half of German companies operating in China are taking measures to reduce the risk of doing business there largely due to growing geopolitical tensions, according to a new survey by the German Chamber of Commerce in China.
- China’s LandSpace readies satellite launch with methane-fuelled rocket — Beijing-based LandSpace Technology, one of China’s private space companies, is preparing to launch satellite payloads to orbit in a key commercial test of its methane and liquid oxygen fuelled rocket.
Other Publications
- San Francisco Standard: Citing Cultural Appropriation, San Francisco Tightens Rules on Candidates’ Chinese Names — The Department of Elections has decided to follow a 2019 state law saying self-submitted Chinese names may only be used if candidates can prove that they were born with them, as many Chinese immigrants or Chinese Americans were, or they have been using the names for at least two years.
- The Atlantic: Why Xi Wants Trump to Win — A second Trump term would allow China to cement its grip on the developing world. By Michael Schuman
- Associated Press: China’s government can’t take a joke, so comedians living abroad censor themselves — Comedian Xi Diao says he knows he should avoid talking politics on stage, but sharing a family name with Chinese President Xi Jinping makes it hard to resist.
- Politico: GOP eyes China travel ban — Five Republican senators want President Joe Biden to restrict travel to and from China amid a surge in pneumonia cases there despite U.S. officials saying there’s little cause for concern.
- Quartz: The shift of manufacturing out of China is shaking up shipping — Demand for shipping routes within Asia is rising as producers diversify supply chains.
- Semafor: How China’s $70 AI copyright ruling impacts the world — A Chinese court ruled that an image generated by artificial intelligence is covered by copyright law — a decision that breaks from the current U.S. approach to AI laws, and could benefit large Chinese tech companies in the long run, experts say.