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 Sportswear Giants Take a $25 Billion Tumble — A nationalist buying frenzy has faded, hurting shares of Li Ning and Anta.
- Global Gaming Shares Dive After China Proposes Online-Gaming Curbs — Tencent sheds $46 billion in market cap after proposals include limiting users’ in-game spending.
- This Retailer Launched Last Year and It’s Shipping a Million Packages a Day — Newcomer Temu and Shein are targeting bargain hunters and benefit from lower shipping costs by sorting packages in China.
The Financial Times
- Tencent rocked by new Chinese online gaming restrictions — Shares in China’s most valuable company and gaming rival NetEase suffer dramatic falls on threat to revenues.
- Chinese state banks cut deposit rates in bid to stimulate growth — Third round of rate reductions this year comes as sector faces mounting pressure from bad loans.
- How a JPMorgan star faded at Hong Kong stock exchange — Global status of Chinese territory’s market is under threat as chief executive Nicolas Aguzin departs.
- China bans export of rare earth processing technologies — Beijing dominates supply of materials used in clean energy and defence, and curbs could add to tensions with US.
- US and China resume military contacts at the highest level — US chair of joint chiefs has first bilateral conversation with counterpart in Beijing since 2022.
The New York Times
- Topics Suppressed in China Are Underrepresented on TikTok, Study Says — The report, from the Network Contagion Research Institute at Rutgers University, could raise new concerns about whether Beijing influences the content on the popular video app.
- China Unveils New Limits on Online Video Games — Chinese regulators announced new restrictions Friday on online video games, which they said were aimed at tightening the management of the industry and protecting the country’s minors.
- BYD, a Chinese Powerhouse in Electric Cars, Will Build a Plant in Hungary — The announcement underscores the threat to European and U.S. automakers posed by Chinese electric-vehicle manufacturers.
- U.S. and China Restore Military Dialogue — In a video call with his Chinese counterpart, Gen. Charles Q. Brown stressed the importance of communication to reduce tensions.
Caixin
- In Depth: TikTok’s High-Stakes American E-Commerce Gambit — Undeterred by U.S. policymakers’ hostility, ByteDance’s TikTok unit is charging ahead with leveraging its popularity among ordinary Americans to seize a share of the world’s biggest consumer market.
- Ex-Provincial Adviser Pleads Guilty to Taking Tens of Millions in Bribes — Yi Pengfei, former vice chairman of the political consultative conference of Hunan province, has pleaded guilty to taking tens of millions of yuan in bribes and abusing his power.
- Chart of the Day: China’s Yuan Overtakes Yen to Rank Fourth for Global Payments — The yuan overtook the Japanese yen to become the fourth-most used currency by value in global payments for the first time in almost two years.
South China Morning Post
- Alibaba promotes millennials to key e-commerce leadership roles as it repositions to fend off rivals — Alibaba has promoted a younger cohort to lead key Taobao and Tmall operations after the conglomerate’s CEO Eddie Wu took direct control of the e-commerce unit.
- China’s home-grown C919, ARJ21 aircraft need more support, manufacturer says, as Boeing 787 Dreamliner returns — The Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China, which makes the C919 and ARJ21, asks for increased policy support at home and help to certify its aircraft to fly overseas.
- Tesla secures a site in Shanghai to build its Megapack energy-storage battery plant — The US carmaker will produce 10,000 massive batteries a year at the Megafactory in Shanghai’s Lingang free-trade zone when construction of the plant is complete.
Nikkei Asia
- $46bn wiped off Tencent’s market cap after China proposes new gaming curbs — Mooted rules taking aim at online spending also hit NetEase shares in Hong Kong.
- Huawei tech drives smaller Chinese players’ challenge to BYD, Tesla — Company uses self-driving know-how to expand EV partnerships.
- Chinese developer Aoyuan files for U.S. bankruptcy protection — Troubled company follows in footsteps of Evergrande and Sunac.
Bloomberg
- China’s Video-Game Curbs Send Shivers Through Stocks Worldwide — China’s raft of new measures limiting players’ spending on video games sent ripples through stock markets across the globe on Friday.
- BYD Car Investment Affirms Hungary as China’s EU Bridgehead — BYD Co. plans to build its first European car factory in Hungary, rewarding Prime Minister Viktor Orban for years of courting China for investments.
- China’s Instagram-like Xiaohongshu On Track for 2023 Net Profit — China’s Instagram-like social platform Xiaohongshu Technology Co. will book a profit this year, according to people familiar with the matter, signaling its e-commerce venture is paying off.
Reuters
- China import concerns spur US to launch semiconductor supply chain review — The U.S. Department of Commerce said Thursday it will launch a survey of the U.S. semiconductor supply chain and national defense industrial base to address national security concerns from Chinese-sourced chips.
- Boeing’s first Dreamliner delivery to China since 2019 arrives — Boeing’s (BA.N) first direct delivery of a 787 Dreamliner to China since 2019 landed in Shanghai on Friday, a step that could hasten the end of China’s freeze on deliveries of the firm’s profitable 737 MAX after more than four years.
- China’s Geely warns Red Sea attacks to delay Europe-bound EV shipments — Chinese automaker Geely warned on Friday its EV sales are likely to be impacted by a delay in deliveries due to the “situation” in the Red Sea, where Yemeni militants are attacking vessels, forcing shippers to take longer, more expensive routes.
Other Publications
- Kyodo News: Japan asked China to shelve Senkaku claim before emperor’s 1992 visit — Tokyo secretly asked Beijing not to make territorial claims to the Japan-controlled Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea to avoid friction ahead of the Japanese emperor’s visit to China in 1992, according to Japanese diplomatic documents declassified Wednesday.
- Washington Post: China’s air quality worsened this year for the first time in a decade — Hazardous air pollution rebounded in most major Chinese cities this year, research showed, after a surge in coal burning and industrial activity upended a decade of progress toward cleaner skies.
- POLITICO: Beijing shrugs at U.S. call for help protecting Red Sea shipping — China’s disinterest in Red Sea policing role underscores Beijing’s reluctance to back its rhetoric on Middle East peace with substantive action.
- MIT Technology Review: How 2023 marked the death of anonymity online in China — As Chinese social media platforms move toward requiring users to disclose more information about their real identities, will we lose what made us want to be online in the first place?
- ChinaFile: What Does It Really Mean for Europe to ‘De-Risk’ Its Relationship with China? — Even as many EU member states broadly agree on the challenges posed by contemporary EU-China relations, their post-pandemic approaches to re-engaging with Beijing have taken very different forms.
