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
- Manufacturing Towns Hit by the ‘China Shock’ Came Back. The Workers Didn’t. — Retail and restaurants have helped communities that were hit by the tidal wave of cheap Chinese goods two decades ago. That doesn’t do much for former factory workers.
- See How Russia Is Winning the Race to Dominate the Arctic — Moscow is growing its footprint at the top of the world, working with China—and leaving the U.S. behind.
- Beijing Prepares Its Opening Bid to Talk Trade With Trump — As the White House fires a 10% tariff salvo, China sees room to negotiate.
- Everyone’s Rattled by the Rise of DeepSeek—Except Nvidia, Which Enabled It — Nvidia’s stock swooned and regulators are restricting its chip sales, but the American AI giant sees a long game in China.
- Trump Slaps Tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China in Opening Salvo of Trade War — The president had promised action, though his team had been in negotiations over how to potentially dial back tariffs.
- ‘The Conscience of the Party’: Hu Yaobang, True Believer — Hu rose from obscurity to become one of the leaders of the Chinese Communist Party. His belief in reform often landed him in peril.
- DeepSeek’s Breakthrough Sparks National Pride in China — Emojis of “DeepSeek pride,” often with smiling cats or dogs, flooded Chinese social media, adding to the festive Lunar New Year atmosphere.
The Financial Times
- The tomato tariff? US consumers set to pay price of Trump’s trade war — Fruit, tequila and even cars could be more expensive as a result of the president’s decision.
- China threatens countermeasures to combat Trump tariffs — Beijing attacks ‘arbitrary’ moves and says it will file WTO lawsuit.
- Sotheby’s axes mainland China ecommerce business over weak demand — Auction house pulls back on ‘Buy Now’ venture for instant purchases of fine art and luxury items.
- China’s migrant dorm entrepreneur bets on demand for cheaper housing — Employers and cities offer subsidised rent to woo labourers who powered economic transformation.
- Trump hits Canada, Mexico and China with steep tariffs — US president fires starting gun on trade war with levies of up to 25% on imports from trading partners.
- Former Fed official accused of passing secrets to China — Justice department alleges John Rogers accessed sensitive information including briefings and policy deliberations.
- ‘A trade war on steroids’: Trump ushers in new age of US protectionism — President bets he can achieve his aims through tariffs without igniting inflation or a sell-off in American stocks.
- Trump’s China claims roil Panama as Rubio visits — Central American nation in ‘panic’ as US president issues threats over canal.
- The global AI race: Is China catching up to the US? — The release of DeepSeek’s new model has shaken assumptions about who has the upper hand in developing the technology.
- Liang Wenfeng, the DeepSeek founder panicking the tech world — The hedge fund quant turned start-up leader rose from a rural Chinese village to overturn America’s AI monopoly.
- Opinion: China is stealing the scene in Japan’s TV market — Underestimating the ingenuity of Chinese competitors has proven unwise. By Lex.
- Opinion: DeepSeek’s success will undermine the US-China tech war — The switch from centralised, closed models to open source democratises AI access for everyone. By Jen Zhu Scott.
- Opinion: Europe’s perfect storm — The continent needs its own industrial strategy to cope with challenges from China and the US. By Rana Foroohar.
- Opinion: Trump is sowing the seeds of an anti-American alliance — By targeting allies and neighbours with tariffs, the US is playing into the hands of China. By Gideon Rachman.
The New York Times
- Trade War Heats Up After Trump Orders Tariffs and Canada Retaliates — Amid warnings of price increases, Canada moved quickly to retaliate, China said it had planned countermeasures and Mexico said it would soon unveil its response.
- From Groceries to Cars, Tariffs Could Raise Prices for U.S. Consumers — President Trump’s new tariffs on goods from Canada, Mexico and China are likely to result in higher prices for lots of products, including computers, tequila and gas.
- Many Republicans Stay Quiet as Trump Orders Hefty Tariffs — Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky was among the few Republicans to voice opposition to the tariffs that would take effect on Tuesday.
- Who Pays for Tariffs? Here’s What You Need to Know. — President Trump has insisted that his new tariffs on America’s largest trading partners will not increase prices for Americans. But a review of how they work suggests that is not the case.
- Trump Favors Blunt Force in Dealing With Foreign Allies and Enemies Alike — With Canada, Mexico, China, Colombia and the Middle East, President Trump has wasted no time threatening to use American might to force recalcitrant countries to back down and do what he wants.
- How US Tariffs Challenge China — China chose swift retaliation for trade measures in the first Trump administration, but that led to an upward spiral of trade measures and much broader tariffs.
- DeepSeek A.I. Is a Win for China, but a Danger to Party Control — DeepSeek’s success embodies China’s ambitions in artificial intelligence. But it could also threaten the grip on power the nation’s leaders hold.
- This Is How Much the U.S. Imports From China, Canada and Mexico — Mexico, China and Canada account for more than a third of the products imported to or bought from the United States.
- DeepSeek’s Answers Include Chinese Propaganda, Researchers Say — Since the Chinese company’s chatbot surged in popularity, researchers have documented how its answers reflect China’s view of the world. Some of its responses amplify propaganda Beijing uses to discredit critics.

Caixin
- Tech Giants Dash to Include DeepSeek’s AI Into Their Offerings — Microsoft was the first major player to make an announcement, saying on Wednesday that it had added DeepSeek-R1 to its Azure AI model library and embedded the model into its Copilot chatbot.
- China’s New Economy Industries Gain as Capital, Labor Inputs Rise — The Caixin BBD New Economy Index came in at 33.8 in January, with the new information technology sector remaining the largest contributor.
- Opinion: Who Will Take a Hit From Trump’s China Tariff Hike — Given the potential pressures of resurgent inflation and high interest rates, the likelihood of further U.S. tariff hikes is low in the short term. By Zhang Jun.
South China Morning Post
- Is China’s DeepSeek moment a chance to transform into an ‘open-source nation’? — Beijing should ease excessive regulation and administrative intervention in AI sector to promote more tech innovation, experts say.
- China warns that US tariffs will hit fentanyl cooperation efforts, damage trust — Shifting blame to other countries will not solve the problem and will ‘seriously damage’ bilateral actions on narcotics control.
- Facing Trump tariffs, China’s exporters hunker down for long, winding Year of the Snake — Analysts assess impact of new American action targeting imports, as uncertainty looms and next week could bring ‘a completely different world’.
- China’s inbound Lunar New Year travel surges over 200% as visa-free policies pay off — China logged a steep increase in inbound travel bookings for this year’s holiday, while the country’s outbound travel sector also showed signs of recovery.
- Opinion: How China’s oil supply shift could force Russia to seek Ukraine peace deal — Continuing the war without Beijing’s support and the income from its fossil-fuel exports would be difficult for Moscow. By Nikola Mikovic.
Nikkei Asia
- Never take China’s ‘smile diplomacy’ at face value — Apparent goodwill to nations such as Japan and India expected to fade.
- China’s role in Trump’s Panama Canal gambit: 5 things to know — Rubio demands ‘immediate changes’ to waterway where Hong Kong titan runs ports.
- Shiseido plots comeback in China through midsize cities: CEO — Japan cosmetics maker looks to weed out unprofitable brands.
- Opinion: Washington’s Taiwan window is rapidly closing — Time is on China’s side as its military prowess grows. By William Matthews.
- Opinion: DeepSeek has ended Silicon Valley’s AI monopoly — Dominance will be determined by how effectively nations deploy and scale AI solutions. By Vivian Toh.
Bloomberg
- Xi Weighs Retaliation After Trump Hits China With 10% Tariff — As the leaders of Canada and Mexico rushed to respond after Donald Trump started a new trade war, Chinese President Xi Jinping took a breath before his nation announced any concrete retaliation.
- China Can Draw Lessons From First Trade War in Tariffs Countdown — Hours before higher US tariffs go into effect, the timeline of China’s countermeasures during Donald Trump’s first trade war still offers the best clues to what happens next.
- Trump and Musk’s USAID ‘Shut Down’ Threat Opens Door for China — Charities, diplomats and foreign officials around the world are frantically trying to figure out what will happen to the US agency that doles out over $40 billion in aid.
- Opinion: Trump’s Colombia Warning Is China’s Window of Opportunity — Beijing won’t hesitate to exploit rifts from the US president’s trade approach. By Karishma Vaswani.
- Opinion: The Dawning of the Age of Chinese Soft Power — China and its tech output are suddenly exuding a cool vibe. How worried should the US and Silicon Valley be? By Howard Chua-Eoan.
Reuters
- China denounces Trump tariff: ‘Fentanyl is America’s problem’ — Beijing will challenge President Donald Trump’s tariff at the World Trade Organization – a symbolic gesture – and take unspecified “countermeasures” in response to the levy, which takes effect on Tuesday, China’s finance and commerce ministries said.
- Why the US is claiming China’s presence violates the Panama neutrality treaty — President Donald Trump vowed to take back the world’s second largest interoceanic waterway during his Jan. 20 inauguration speech, falsely claiming that China is operating it.
- Chinese chemical executives cleared of US fentanyl charge, convicted on other counts — The U.S. Department of Justice touted the 2023 indictment of Wang and Chen as a significant step in the fight against fentanyl, a highly addictive painkiller.
Other Publications
- The Washington Post: What to know about China’s role in the fentanyl crisis — President Donald Trump has slapped tariffs on Chinese goods, accusing Beijing of allowing fentanyl and precursor chemicals to be shipped to the United States.
- The New Yorker: Is DeepSeek China’s Sputnik Moment? — The Chinese company’s low-cost, high-performance A.I. model has shocked Silicon Valley, and a longtime China watcher warns that the West is being leapfrogged in many other industries, too.
- The Economist: Donald Trump’s new trade war on China is also an opioid war — The president claims that drugs are poisoning geopolitics.
- Rest of World: Indonesia, home to the world’s largest nickel reserves, struggles to achieve its EV dreams — China’s growing involvement and the rapid shift to lithium batteries dissuade investors.