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
- Is China’s Economy Finally Bottoming Out? — Recent data contains clear hints of improvement but the Fed, for one, could play spoiler.
- Comments by China’s Xi Hint at Possible Expansion of PBOC Toolkit — A months-old speech by China’s top leader has stoked speculation around aggressive liquidity boosts from Beijing.
- China Developers’ Shares Suspended in Hong Kong — Several Chinese developers’ shares have been suspended from trading in Hong Kong due to their failure to meet the deadline for publishing last year’s annual results, another sign of the turmoil in the country’s real-estate sector.
- Xiaomi Shares Jump After Launch of Its First Electric Vehicle — Xiaomi’s shares surged after the tech company unveiled its maiden electric vehicle, a competitively-priced sedan vying against Tesla and others for market share in China’s crowded EV space.
- BYD’s Sales Jump as Investors Await Tesla Delivery Numbers — The Chinese electric-vehicle maker has emerged as a fierce competitor to Western EV makers.
- Inside the Russian Shadow Trade for Weapons Parts, Fueled by Crypto — How Russian middlemen used the cryptocurrency tether to avoid U.S. sanctions and procure parts for drones and high-tech weapons.
- Ex-Workers at Temu Parent Say Noncompete Penalties Crush Their Finances — Temu parent PDD enforces a culture of corporate secrecy by suing some former employees.
The Financial Times
- BYD set to lose EV throne to Tesla as sales slip — More competition and flagging demand in the Chinese market hit leading battery and plug-in hybrid vehicle makers.
- AIIB in talks over second loan guarantee deal for World Bank — China’s answer to western multilateral lenders backs deeper ties with peer institutions to ease capital constraints.
- Landmark UK bitcoin freezing order had links to £5bn China fraud — Episode raises questions about extent to which the English courts are used for litigation involving dirty money.
- Do our economic headlines connect? — Beneficiaries of the old paradigm of US financialisation are beginning to express doubts over what it has achieved.
The New York Times
- Poor Nations Are Writing a New Handbook for Getting Rich — Economies focused on exports have lifted millions out of poverty, but epochal changes in trade, supply chains and technology are making it a lot harder.
Caixin
- Defaulted Sichuan Trust Goes Bankrupt — Troubled firm’s failure to repay investors in 2020 led authorities to crack down on trust industry.
- Former Chairman of State-Owned Automaker Caught in Corruption Dragnet — Anhui province graft busters are investigating An Jin three years after retiring from the JAC Group.
- Luckin Challenger Pushes China’s Coffee Price War Toward Boiling Point — Upstart Cotti is trying to beat the Chinese leader at its own game by adopting a low-price, subsidy-driven strategy to conquer the affordable segment of the market.
- Huawei’s HarmonyOS Next Is Set to Rival iOS and Android — Home-grown operating system picks up momentum in creating an app ecosystem that could create 3 million jobs in China.
- China Welcomes More Foreign Travelers as Visa Waiver Expands — Efforts to attract visitors bear fruit but visits still lag pre-pandemic levels.
South China Morning Post
- South China Sea: writing of rule book for disputed waterway delayed by lack of trust and momentum, says maritime expert — Wu Shicun, founding president of China’s National Institute for South China Sea Studies, is pessimistic about progress of South China Sea Code of Conduct.
- Mainland China, G7 responses to Taiwan escalation would harm all parties, research finds — Researchers have released their findings on the likely devastating responses taken by G7 countries as well as mainland China if tensions over Taiwan turned for the worse.
- China’s military to hold live-fire exercise on Myanmar border as fighting continues — The announcement of the drill in Yunnan province follows a similar exercise held in November as rebel groups began a major offensive against the junta.
- Updated US semiconductor export restrictions raise demand in China for Nvidia’s RTX 4090 graphics card — Merchants at Shenzhen’s Huaqiangbei, the world’s biggest wholesale electronics marketplace, are stockpiling graphics cards ahead of the revised US curbs’ roll-out on April 4.
- China’s banks cut salaries, rescind bonuses amid economic slowdown and Beijing’s financial reshuffle — China’s 12 national joint-stock banks reported deep salary cuts last year, while 10 lenders also demanded employees return performance-based bonuses, amid Beijing’s ongoing efforts to reshape the financial industry.
Nikkei Asia
- Majority of ASEAN people favor China over U.S., survey finds — According to the State of Southeast Asia 2024 survey, compiled by the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, 50.5% of respondents opted for China and 49.5% preferred the U.S. if ASEAN had to pick sides.
- U.S., Japan to agree on subsidy rules on chips, batteries with China in mind — Japan and the U.S. now intend to establish criteria for when subsidies are appropriate. These might include decarbonization goals and ensuring a stable supply of components.
- Xi calls Indonesia high-speed rail a ‘gold standard’ of ties — The “Whoosh” high-speed train, a prestige project for Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo under Beijing’s BRI, reached 2 million passengers last month, according to Kereta Cepat Indonesia China (KCIC).
Bloomberg
- Investors Are Unwinding the ‘Buy India, Sell China’ Stocks Trade — A popular equities strategy to “buy India, sell China” has reached an inflection point for some investors.
- Hong Kongers’ Record Trips to China Leave City Empty Over Easter — Hong Kong became a ghost town during the Easter holiday as residents made a record number of trips out of town — particularly to mainland China — leaving bar strips and shopping hotspots empty.
- US Asks South Korea to Toughen Up Export Controls on China Chips — The US is asking South Korea to adopt restrictions on semiconductor technology exports to China, another sign the Biden administration is stepping up efforts to thwart Beijing’s chip ambitions.
Reuters
- China’s oil majors face uphill climb to adapt to EV future — China’s gasoline demand is predicted to peak by 2025 and could halve by 2045, making a strategic shift an imperative for its biggest oil refiners and marketers, Sinopec and PetroChina.
- India rejects China’s renaming of 30 places in Himalayan border state — The state is frequently the cause of friction between the Asian giants whose ties have nosedived since a bloody border clash between their troops in the western Himalayas in 2020.
- China lifts tariffs on Australian wine, ends three-year freeze in trade — In the first half of 2023, Australian wine accounted for only 0.14% of Chinese wine imports compared with 27.46% in 2020 before the duties were imposed, according to the commerce ministry statement.
Other Publications
- Radio Free Asia: China bans ‘former good friend’ from talking about Hong Kong — Stephen Roach says he was prohibited from raising worries about the city’s future at a high-level forum.
- CFR: On Fentanyl, Biden Should Look to Work With China — The fentanyl epidemic is a major election issue. The U.S. could leverage trade policy with China to crack down on its export.
- Council of Councils: Opinion: A Chinese Scholar’s Perspective on the Russia-Ukraine War — How China handles intricate bilateral and multilateral relations involving Russia will be a test for the diplomacy of this major power. By Guan Guihai.
- Foreign Policy: ‘Everything, Everywhere, All At Once’: U.S. Officials Warn of Increased Cyberthreats — Washington prepares for a worst-case scenario of attacks on critical infrastructure.
- Foreign Affairs: China Is Still Rising — Don’t Underestimate the World’s Second-Biggest Economy.
- CSIS: Opinion: America is Losing the Shoe Race With China — China is good at manufacturing what others have invented but no longer so good at innovation itself. By James Andrew Lewis.
- CSIS: Friendshoring the Lithium-Ion Battery Supply Chain — Reforming the lithium-ion supply chain constitutes a critical cornerstone of US foreign policy.
- MIT Technology Review: Why Threads is suddenly popular in Taiwan — During Taiwan’s presidential election, Meta’s social network emerged as a surprise hit.
- MIT Technology Review: How ASML took over the chipmaking chessboard — An interview with outgoing CTO Martin van den Brink on the company’s rise to dominance and the life and death of Moore’s Law.
