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.
Paid subscribers automatically have this list emailed directly to their inboxes every day by 10 a.m. EST. Subscribe here.
The Wall Street Journal
- China Revives Socialist Ideas to Fix Its Real-Estate Crisis — Xi Jinping aims to put the state back in charge of the crumbling property market, part of a push to rein in the private sector.
- Chinese EV Maker BYD Exploring Mexico Factory as Entry to U.S. Market — Tesla competitor looking at new export base south of the U.S. border.
- Volkswagen Under Pressure to Ditch Its China Joint Venture as U.S. Impounds Vehicles — Large German manufacturers have expanded their footprints in China, threatening Berlin’s efforts to reduce economic reliance on the Asian giant.
The Financial Times
- Investors buy European luxury stocks as ‘safer’ play on China’s economy — Fund managers and analysts argue gloom over economy is overdone but remain wary of beaten-down Chinese shares.
- Opinion: The German business dilemma in China — VW and BASF show the difficulty of straddling the growing rift between values of investors and Beijing’s policies. By Patricia Nilsson
The New York Times
- Chinese Influence Campaign Pushes Disunity Before U.S. Election, Study Says — A long-running network of accounts, known as Spamouflage, is using A.I.-generated images to amplify negative narratives involving the presidential race.
Caixin
- In Depth: Arresting Four-Year Slide of Hong Kong Stocks Hinges on Policy Support — For the first time since its launch more than half a century ago, Hong Kong’s benchmark stock gauge, the Hang Seng Index (HSI), has fallen for four years in a row.
- Green Energy, Digital Infrastructure Are Hot Tickets for Chinese Firms Targeting Middle East — A veteran investor and co-founder of a Hong Kong-based investment management firm said Chinese companies eyeing the Middle East should focus on digital infrastructure and green energy.
- U.S. May Surpass China as Germany’s Largest Trade Partner in 2024 — The investment during the past four years has been purely reinvestment of German companies’ profits in China, rather than new investment, and some German companies have partially withdrawn capital from the country, a report found.
South China Morning Post
- China not expected to let past overshadow relations with Indonesia’s new leader Prabowo Subianto — Questions have been raised about the former general’s possible role in 1998 anti-Chinese riots, but analysts believe he will want strong ties with Beijing.
- YouTube co-founder Steve Chen returns to Taiwan to tap tech talent, link island with Silicon Valley — Following many lucrative years in California, YouTube co-founder Steve Chen has come back to his home of Taiwan to build bridges between the island’s tech talent and the experience and resources of Silicon Valley.
- As Chinese scramble to save money, ‘everyone realises winter has come’, and they’re trying to get out of the cold — Gone are the days when the property and stock markets yielded guaranteed gains in China, leading to middle-class investors becoming more risk-averse with their hard-earned savings and familial wealth.
Nikkei Asia
- Japan’s nominal GDP outgrows China’s for first time in 46 years — 2023 growth rates reverse due to deflationary pressure from housing, employment slumps.
- Opinion: China’s deflation problem won’t go away by itself — Beijing seems instead to be prioritizing yuan stability. By William Pesek
Bloomberg
- China Holiday Travel Surge Hints at Consumer Spending Pickup — A resurgence in travel over China’s Lunar New Year holiday is offering some signs of a consumer spending pickup in the world’s second-largest economy as it struggles with low confidence and deflation.
- China Set to Bide Time on Rate Cut Until Yuan, Data Stabilize — China’s central bank is poised to keep cash conditions and monetary policy broadly stable as policymakers focus on a weakening currency.
- China Builder Logan Gets Respite as Liquidation Petitions Fail — Logan Group Co. bought more time to push through its debt restructuring plan, after a Hong Kong court batted down creditor petitions to liquidate the Chinese developer’s two key units.
Reuters
- West challenges China’s critical minerals hold on Africa — China’s CMOC Group overtook Glencore to become the world’s largest producer of cobalt last year as it ramped up its new Kisanfu mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
- China to show off homegrown airliner at Singapore air show amid supply crunch — Singapore will play host to Asia’s biggest air show next week for the first time since the end of COVID border restrictions, with regional travel rebounding and the military side of the show bristling with defensive systems and nervous arms buyers.
- Exclusive: Rubio urges SEC to block Shein IPO unless China operating risk disclosed — Republican Senator Marco Rubio asked the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to block Shein’s bid to list publicly in New York unless the e-tailer makes additional disclosures about its business operations and “the serious risks of doing business” in China.
Other Publications
- Rhodium Group: Tipping Point? Germany and China in an Era of Zero-Sum Competition — What for years felt like a win-win economic relationship, to borrow one of Beijing’s favorite expressions, is trending increasingly in the direction of zero-sum. By Noah Barkin and Gregor Sebastian
- Associated Press: At start of Lunar Year of the Dragon, China seeks to assert its own interpretation of cultural icon — At the start of the Lunar Year of the Dragon, China is seeking to assert its own interpretation of the cultural icon that dates back centuries in both Eastern and Western cultures.
- POLITICO: Blinken, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi to meet Friday at Munich Security Conference — Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi are likely to discuss planning for a phone call this spring between President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
- Foreign Affairs: The Taiwan Catastrophe — What America—and the world—would lose if China took the island. By Andrew S. Erickson, Gabriel B. Collins, and Matt Pottinger
- Quartz: China is warily eyeing the US and EU’s pursuit of “collective economic security” — But Beijing is aiming for the same goal, even if it doesn’t call it as such.
- Center for Strategic and International Studies: India-China Relations Are Unlikely to See Much Progress — While it may not be in the interests of either India or China to let the situation escalate, the risk is real. By Rajeswari Pillari Rajagopalan
- The Guardian: Authors ‘excluded from Hugo awards over China concerns’ — Leaked emails reveal organisers of leading science fiction and fantasy awards flagged works of a ‘sensitive political nature’.
