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 Hands a Suspended Death Sentence to a Former Bank CEO — Tian Huiyu, former president and CEO of China Merchants Bank, was charged with bribery, among other crimes.
- Even Lionel Messi Can’t Deliver a Win for Hong Kong — The Argentina soccer star’s absence from an Inter Miami game has sparked public outrage and political fallout in Hong Kong.
- A U.S. Embassy Wanted to Talk About Giraffes. Chinese Investors Had Other Ideas. — A social-media post about animal conservation quickly became an outlet for the frustration of China’s stock-market investors.
- Chinese Shares Extend Losses Despite Regulator’s Pledge to Shore Up Market — Chinese shares extended declines despite a series of stimulus measures and the securities regulator’s latest pledge to shore up the market.
- The Copycats Are Coming for China’s Hit Brands — Companies have attracted copycats and trademark squatters as they become household names in other countries.
- China Property Projects Set to Receive Funding — Thousands of real-estate projects in China are set to receive funding under Beijing’s new “whitelist” financing program, as policymakers intensify efforts to rescue the property sector from a deepening liquidity crisis.
- China Gives Australian Writer Suspended Death Sentence — Yang Hengjun, a blogger and spy novelist, was first arrested in China in 2019 on national security grounds.
- Big Brands Are Playing the Long Game in China — Apple, Mondelez and Procter & Gamble are bullish on consumer spending growth in China despite recent economic turmoil there.
- Evergrande’s Collapse Followed Backroom Battle Between Wall Street and Chinese Banks — A group of investors opposed a restructuring plan they felt would have advantaged Chinese banks over themselves, people familiar with the matter said.
The Financial Times
- China gives Australian writer Yang Hengjun suspended death sentence — Democracy advocate has been detained for five years on espionage charges.
- The financier turning China’s noodle joints and karaoke bars into a data gold mine — Micro Connect is packaging revenues from small businesses into tradeable instruments but critics say the risks are high.
- China’s cull of EV overcapacity will bring little relief to Europe — Beijing’s tried-and-tested industrial policy has a track record of creating fierce export juggernauts.
- Hui Ka Yan: the Evergrande tycoon faces his downfall — Once the richest man in China, the liquidation of his property empire marks the end of an era.
- ‘Uninvestable’: China’s $2tn stock rout leaves investors scarred — Some global fund managers fear government efforts to stabilise the market are too little, too late.
- The Trump factor is looming over China’s markets — Fears of heightened trade war if former president is re-elected weigh on sentiment.
- Meta’s ad rebound may depend too much on China — The US group has benefited from huge but unsustainable outlays from Chinese advertisers.
The New York Times
- Snow and Rain Disrupt China’s Lunar New Year Travel Rush — Hundreds of flights and trains have been canceled as China’s most important holiday approaches, and more bad weather is in the forecast.
- Chinese-Australian Writer Yang Given Suspended Death Sentence in China — The verdict in the case of Yang Hengjun, who was detained on national security charges, may weigh on the warming relations between China and Australia.
- Welcome to ‘Dalifornia,’ an Oasis for China’s Drifters and Dreamers — Young Chinese are flocking to the picturesque mountain town of Dali to escape the cutthroat competition and suffocating political environment of the country’s megacities.
- China Expands Nuclear Arsenal Under Xi, Bracing for Growing Rivalry With U.S. — China’s leader built up a nuclear arsenal, steeling for a growing rivalry with the United States. Now China is exploring how to wield its newfound strength.
- U.S. Hits Back at Iran With Sanctions, Criminal Charges and Airstrikes — The Biden administration used sanctions and criminal charges to punish the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, Iran’s premier military force.
- N.S.A. Installs New Director as U.S. Prepares for Election Influence Operations — General Timothy D. Haugh is taking over the spy agency and U.S. Cyber Command as the organizations look to deter Russia and other countries from expanding influence activities.
- Pigeon Was Cleared of Being a Chinese Spy, but Served 8 Months Anyway — Birds, be careful: Loitering at an Indian port with a microchip on your leg can make people nervous and get you locked up.

Caixin
- Ex-Taiping Life Boss Booted From Party for Alleged Graft — Zhang Ke, former general manager of the state-owned insurance giant, exploited his power for others in exchange for ‘huge sums’ of money, top graft buster says.
- Cover Story: Private Equity in China Heads for Exits Amid Three-Year Stock Slump — PE and venture capital investors seek new strategies as investments, fundraising and IPOs decline.
- Six Rating Firms Fined a Total of $4.8 Million for Malpractice — The companies were accused of flaws in rating business procedures, violating independence requirements and breaching consistency principles.
- China Was World’s Largest Auto Exporter in 2023 After NEVs Drove Up Shipments — Overtaking Japan to claim the top spot last year, Chinese car-makers are forecast to continue to boost overseas shipments, which could reach 5.5 million in 2024, industry group says.
South China Morning Post
- Huawei reclaims top spot in China’s smartphone sales ranking, its first time back since company was added to US blacklist — Huawei’s return to form in the world’s largest smartphone market was jump-started by the surprise release last August of its Mate 60 Pro 5G handset.
- Alibaba’s DingTalk, miHoYo’s Honkai: Star Rail among Chinese apps launching on Apple Vision Pro headset — The visionOS version of DingTalk supports special features available only on Apple’s new device, including realistic avatars known as Persona.
- Why China’s top spy agency is stepping out of the shadows — The Ministry of State Security kept a secretive presence for years, but now it is on social media and creating a more high-profile public image. It has every reason to expand its public reach, but it must be more mindful of the potential impact of its daily musings on political and economic matters.
- As China’s ‘Year of the Widow’ threatens marriage rate, can ‘dragon babies’ boost births? — Chinese are debating a superstitious belief that the coming lunar year will bode badly for marriages, and the Ministry of Civil Affairs is paying attention.
Nikkei Asia
- First China-built biomethanol ship aims to set sail in Q2 — Built by Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding, the 16,100-tonne Eco Maestro is the first of 14 vessels ordered by Singaporean container shipping group X-Press Feeders to make its maiden journey.
- China and Russia bolster disinformation arsenal with real facts — The rapid evolution of artificial intelligence has made it possible to manipulate public sentiment in a way previously unimaginable. This technology makes it much easier for malicious actors to distort elections and throw society into chaos.
- Housing glut leaves China with excess homes for 150m people — China is grappling with the aftermath of its bursting housing bubble. Given weak sales and an inventory build-up in the sector, it is now expected to take more than five years for the country to shed excess stock.
- China’s favored state-owned companies squeeze private sector — Market cap of private concerns drops 60% in two and a half years, study finds.
Bloomberg
- German Trade Gap With China Narrows for First Time in Five Years — Germany’s trade deficit with China shrank for the first time since 2018 — helping to more than double the country’s overall surplus.
- China Vows Plan to Attract Investment, Offers No New Detail — China will come up with an action plan to attract foreign investment, an economic official said Monday, without offering any details about when it would be released or what it would contain.
- China’s Copper Smelters Mull Cutting Output After Years of Breakneck Growth — Years of relentless growth are finally catching up with China’s copper smelters.
- China Tightens Rules on Polluters Before Carbon Market Expansion — China toughened rules for industrial polluters participating in its national carbon market, including larger fines for entities found to be falsifying data on emissions reductions.
- Opinion: China’s Surveillance State Depends on People, Not Cameras — Technology has supercharged the country’s surveillance capabilities. But its spying prowess depends on more old-fashioned tools. By Minxin Pei.
Reuters
- Exclusive: Eisai expects 1,500 Alzheimer’s patients in China launch, sees ‘huge’ growth — Japan’s Eisai, opens new tab aims to roll out its groundbreaking Alzheimer’s drug Leqembi to 1,500 people in China later this year, but expects growth to accelerate significantly in 2025 as diagnosis methods change.
- Insight: China bets on open-source chips as US export controls mount — But as the U.S. widens restrictions on China’s access to advanced semiconductors and chip-making equipment, the open-source nature of RISC-V has made it part of Beijing’s plan to curb its dependence on Western technology.
- AI chip demand forces Huawei to slow smartphone production – sources — The situation offers a rare glimpse of Huawei’s challenges as it works to rebuild since U.S. sanctions in 2019 cut access to advanced chipmaking tools on national security grounds and crippled its smartphone unit.
- Exclusive: Chinese brokers restrict cross-border swaps as stocks plunge – sources — Since Monday, domestic CICC clients cannot add new positions via total return swaps, to make overseas investments, as the broker seeks to limit its derivatives book, said the sources.
- Job worries sour mood for Chinese heading home for holidays — Producer prices have fallen for 15 straight months, crushing profit margins and endangering workers’ incomes and jobs, adding another major headache for the world’s second-largest economy.
Other Publications
- Foreign Policy: How Primed for War Is China? — Risk signals for a conflict are flashing red.
- POLITICO: Air Force preps for mega overhaul with an eye toward China — The service is expected to announce major changes to its air wings and command structure this month.