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
- U.S. Allies Issue Rare Warning on Chinese Hacking Group — An advisory by Australia, along with the U.S. and six other countries, details a group known as APT40.
- Opinion: Asia’s New ‘Game of Thrones’ — As U.S. power recedes, Russia and China compete for regional advantage. By Walter Russell Mead.
The Financial Times
- Australia accuses China-backed hackers of breaching government networks — US, UK, Germany and Japan back report alleging APT40 conducted ‘malicious’ cyber espionage activities.
- Modi visits Putin to strengthen ties in hedge against China — Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy calls PM’s trip a ‘devastating blow to peace efforts’.
- Gridlock in China: spending on network surges to support green energy transition — Beijing rolls out huge investment to upgrade transmission system as shift from coal piles pressure on creaking grid.
- BYD agrees $1bn deal to build electric vehicle plant in Turkey — Second-largest EV maker expands EU production as bloc clamps down on access for China imports.
- Sequoia Capital’s former China unit raises new $2.5bn start-up fund — Neil Shen’s HongShan creates renminbi vehicle with more scope to invest in sensitive technologies than previous $9bn fund.
- Does Brussels plan to charge Chinese batteries? — For whom the cell tolls.
- Opinion: China’s plenum must offer action not rote slogans — The country’s problems are both cyclical and structural and need tackling on multiple fronts. By Eswar Prasad.
The New York Times
- U.S. Creates High-Tech Global Supply Chains to Blunt Risks Tied to China — The Biden administration is trying to get foreign companies to invest in chip-making in the United States and more countries to set up factories to do final assembly and packaging.
Caixin
- Exclusive: China Everbright Bank Veteran Ren Feng to Lead Everbright Jinou AMC — Ren Feng’s move comes after two years leading the bank’s wealth management unit.
- PwC Appoints New China Chairman to Steer Firm Through Evergrande Storm — Daniel Li, the first mainlander to lead one of the ‘Big Four’ accounting firms on the mainland, inherits a company in deep trouble over its client’s financial fraud.
- Gree Real Estate Changes Direction and Gets Out of the Real Estate Business — Gree Real Estate is the third listed developer to cut its losses and leave the property sector in three months.
- China’s Low-Altitude Economy Receives ‘Rare’ Show of Support From Military — Air force of the People’s Liberation Army Southern Theater Command says it will work with the Guangdong government to ‘create favorable conditions’ for the concept.
South China Morning Post
- Ant Group-backed Paytm has a breakthrough in India with nod to put US$6 million into unit — The approval, which still has to be vetted by the finance ministry, will remove the main stumbling block to the unit, Paytm Payment Services, resuming normal business operations.
- North Korea’s shifting satellite allegiance to Russia signals China’s waning influence — Appearing to lead ‘an axis’, including Moscow, Pyongyang and Tehran, does not appeal to Beijing, analysts say after Putin and Kim sign treaty.
- Lay-offs by China’s top firms in key industries show unemployment biting through economic turmoil — A Post review of 23 annual reports from leading Chinese firms found that more than half downsized last year, while others slashed staff-related expenses.
- Opinion: Why China is pushing so hard for international cooperation on AI — At a recent conference in Shanghai, participants underscored why AI development must be inclusive and not succumb to deglobalisation pressures. By Gerui Wang.
- Opinion: China’s solar power prowess can truly shine in energy-starved Africa — The US market may be closed to it but China can shape development in Africa – as a developer and operator of solar energy projects. By Winston Mok.
Nikkei Asia
- India to drive food demand as China’s appetite wanes: report — India is forecast to account for 20% of growth in global food consumption over the next decade as its economy and population grow.
- China’s AI startups race for customers as titans like Alibaba cut prices — Chinese artificial intelligence startups that have raised hundreds of millions of dollars in funding are facing a reckoning: find customers fast, or get crushed or swallowed up by tech giants.
- U.S. law firms hasten retreat from mainland China — U.S. law firms rapidly scaled back their mainland China offices this year amid a growing list of challenges including a worsening capital market, structural economic problems and geopolitical tensions.
- Chinese student pleads guilty to violating U.S. espionage act — Chinese 26-year-old Shi Fengyun pled guilty to espionage misdemeanors for flying a drone near a U.S. naval facility.
Bloomberg
- Solar Firm Gets Millions in US Tax Credits Despite Chinese Labor Questions — South Korea’s Hanwha says it takes steps to ensure supply-chain integrity at its Qcells plants in Georgia. But it has sourced material from companies with suppliers that US officials have sanctioned over forced labor in China.
- China, Philippines Spar Over Coral Damage in Disputed Waters — The Philippines and China have traded accusations of destroying marine environment in the South China Sea, opening a new front in their dispute over the vital waterway.
- China Investors’ New Nickname Shows Frustration With Market Rout — Some of China’s 200 million mom-and-pop investors have given themselves a sarcastic new nickname in a show of frustration with the country’s failure to prop up the stock market.
- US, Allies Accuse China’s Spies of Directing Cyberattacks — The US and its allies have accused China’s top spy agency of directing cyberattacks against government and private sector entities through a group of hackers.
- Opinion: Milk Tea Craze Is Bringing Out All China’s Wrongs — It tells the tale of an economy defined and scarred by hyper competition — and burnout. By Shuli Ren.
Reuters
- Nornickel in talks with China Copper to move smelting plant to China, sources say — If the move goes ahead, it would mark Russia’s first uprooting of a domestic plant since the U.S. and Britain banned metal exchanges from accepting new aluminium, copper and nickel produced by Russia.
- Asia investors wager on region’s rebound, China recovery — Comments point to a degree of steadfastness from the region’s top businesses and money managers that can underpin the return of foreign capital.
- India races to build power plants in region claimed by China, sources say — India says Arunachal Pradesh is an integral part of the country, but China claims it is a part of southern Tibet, and has objected to other Indian infrastructure projects there.
Other Publications
- The Guardian: The vast network of security deals spanning the Pacific, and what it means — Guardian analysis shows web of agreements between Pacific countries and Australia, US and China, as experts raise concerns over rising militarisation.
- Made in China Journal: Teaching China in Alabama Prisons in Six Objects — U.S. prisons represent an underserved but fertile site for China Studies.
- CSIS: Unpacking the Drivers of Southeast Asia’s Policy towards China — Southeast Asian states largely see China’s rise as strategically and economically beneficial for regime security.
- The Washington Post: Another year of heat and floods spurs China’s climate-change awakening — Beijing has made adapting to extreme weather a policy priority, and weather officials issued an unusually direct warning about the intensifying heat and rainfall.
- Foreign Affairs: Avoiding War in the South China Sea — How America Can Support the Philippines Without Fighting China.
