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
- It’s Not Just DeepSeek. A Guide to the Chinese AI Companies You Need to Know. — Chinese internet giants and startups are competing with each other and U.S. rivals.
- DeepSeek Scrambles U.S.-China Tech War — The U.S. tried to slow China’s tech advances, but DeepSeek showed how hard that is.
- DeepSeek’s Big Question: Where Does AI’s True Value Reside? — The startup will help drive AI into the mass market. But the lion’s share of value likely remains with a few companies continually raising the bar.
- Swatch Group Shares Slump After Disappointing Results — The company expects demand in China—which accounts for 30% of its sales—to remain subdued.
- Opinion: DeepSeek AI Is the Competition America Needs — The company’s success demonstrates the futility of the U.S. policy of subsidies and sanctions. By George Gilder.
The Financial Times
- Opinion: DeepSeek hints that China has mastered the art of ‘kaizen’ — the west should be worried — The Japanese concept of continuous industrial improvement helps to explain Beijing’s technological success. By Leo Lewis.
- Opinion: German companies are risking a ‘lose-lose’ decoupling with China — The corporate and political winds appear to be blowing increasingly in that direction. By Richard Milne.
The New York Times
- OpenAI Says DeepSeek May Have Improperly Harvested Its Data — The San Francisco start-up claims that its Chinese rival may have used data generated by OpenAI technologies to build new systems.
- Who Is Liang Wenfeng, the Founder of the A.I. Start-Up DeepSeek? — The Chinese company DeepSeek seemed to have come out of nowhere this week when it upturned markets. Here’s what to know about Liang Wenfeng, the engineer who started it.
- Commerce Nominee Defends Trump Tariffs and Promises Strong Stance on China — Howard Lutnick, the financier President Trump has picked to lead the Commerce Department, said he favored “across-the-board” tariffs and was grilled about his financial ties in a nomination hearing Wednesday.

Caixin
- Shenzhen Metro Buys Out Hongshuwan Project to Ease Vanke Debt Burden — Move is part of Vanke’s effort to offload assets amid tightening liquidity and signals stronger state backing.
South China Morning Post
- China’s top memory chip maker CXMT narrows tech gap with leaders Samsung, Hynix, Micron — The Hefei-based firm’s latest DDR5 memory chips use a 16nm node process, breaking through a limit that Washington sought to impose with sanctions.
- High-steaks challenge: how China feeds its huge, meat-hungry population — China’s 1.4 billion consumers have developed Western-style appetites for high-protein foods such as pork and beef, prompting far-reaching changes in the global economy.
Nikkei Asia
- Xi Jinping’s star wanes at key military gala — State media avoids putting a spotlight on Xi as his personality cult weakens.
- Musk says Tesla ‘in a bind’ launching full self-driving function in China — Deliveries hit record in world’s biggest auto market amid global sales, profit headwinds.
- Panasonic to boost Vietnam wiring device output to fend off China — Company looks to hold on to top spot in Asia market for outlets, switches.
Bloomberg
- TikTok Bidder to Offer ‘Significantly’ More Than $20 Billion — It’s unclear if TikTok parent ByteDance will consider the bid led by tech entrepreneur Jesse Tinsley.
- Trump Officials Discuss Tighter Curbs on Nvidia China Sales — Officials are focused on potentially expanding restrictions to cover Nvidia’s H20 chips, sources say.
- DeepSeek Quizzed by Irish Watchdog Over China Data Fears — Ireland’s Data Protection Commission said it’s written to the company to flag its worries over potential breaches of European Union privacy law.
- Russia Gets Past U.S. Pressures and Returns to Yuan Surplus — The ruble has now strengthened about 10% against the yuan from a low seen in late November.
Reuters
- HSBC’s global brand in the balance as it doubles down on Asia bet — The decision to wind down certain businesses in Europe and the Americas amounts to a prioritization of Asian corporate clients over companies in the West.
- DeepSeek’s global success received by Chinese with pride and glee — Some say the homegrown AI startup’s meteoric rise is a sign China is beating back Washington’s attempts to contain the country’s tech industry.
- Microsoft, Meta CEOs defend hefty AI spending after DeepSeek stuns tech world — U.S. executives said that building huge computer networks was necessary to serve growing corporate needs.
- Why blocking China’s DeepSeek from using U.S. AI may be difficult — Technologists said blocking distillation may be harder than it looks.
Other Publications
- The Economist: DeepSeek poses a challenge to Beijing as much as to Silicon Valley — The story of Liang Wenfeng, the model-maker’s mysterious founder.
- WIRED: Exposed DeepSeek Database Revealed Chat Prompts and Internal Data — China-based DeepSeek has exploded in popularity, drawing greater scrutiny. Case in point: Security researchers found more than 1 million records, including user data and API keys, in an open database.
- WIRED: China Has Taught AI Startups a Lesson Automakers Learned Years Ago — In the DeepSeek AI saga, global technologists are relearning the lessons of the Chinese auto boom.
- Foreign Affairs: The Case for “Avalanche Decoupling” From China — Planning for dramatic U.S. action in a crisis will make one less likely.
- Foreign Policy: Can Trump Strike a Grand Deal With Beijing? — A bargain between the two superpowers could preserve global peace. But what would it cost?
- CFR: Bangladesh Could Turn to China as Trump Pulls Aid From the Country — The Trump administration’s decision to freeze foreign aid to Bangladesh could undermine U.S. strategic interests by pushing Bangladesh closer to China.