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
- China Home Prices Show Slight Improvement But Remain in Decline — Home prices in major Chinese cities continued to slightly narrow their declines, suggesting that Beijing’s policy blitz has helped stabilize the beleaguered real-estate sector.
- How Dirty Money From Fentanyl Sales Is Flowing Through China — Chinese money brokers are teaming up with Mexican cartels, greasing the wheels of the fentanyl trade, U.S. officials say.
The Financial Times
- China’s holdings of US Treasuries fall to lowest level since 2009 — Beijing has been seeking to hold US debt through lower-profile accounts and diversifying into other assets.
- Chinese warships sail within 150 nautical miles of Sydney — ‘Unprecedented’ manoeuvre comes as Beijing projects power further in Pacific.
- Philippines ‘deeply disturbed’ by incident over shoal disputed by China — Manila’s foreign secretary says he is reassured by US commitment to alliance amid tensions with Beijing.
- Opinion: The emerging winners in Asia amid the trade wars — Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore and increasingly India stand to gain. By Trinh Nguyen.
- Opinion: Who will now stabilise the world economy? — Neither the US nor China is willing to assume the responsibility. By Robin Harding.
The New York Times
- Nepal Took a Risk on a $500 Million U.S. Grant. It May Now Regret It. — President Trump’s freezing of foreign aid provides an opening for China to portray America as an unreliable partner.
Caixin
- Time Is Right for China to Fix Personal Bankruptcy Legal Omission, Expert Says — China needs to establish working bankruptcy system for individual debtors, says a renowned legal expert.
- Trump’s Tariffs Prompt Chinese E-Commerce Giants to Expand Beyond U.S. — Europe is an attractive market for China’s e-commerce giants, but regulation is tightening.
- PBOC’s Pan Says Reform of IMF Quota System ‘Critical’ — Emerging and developing economies must have a greater say in running the Washington-based lender, central bank governor says in a speech.
South China Morning Post
- China’s subsea data centre could power 7,000 DeepSeek conversations a second: report — Computing power in underwater computing cluster off Hainan will be used in AI training, game production and marine research: state media.
- China holds dominant position in humanoid robot ecosystem: analysts — China leads the West in number of top listed companies involved in developing humanoid robots, Morgan Stanley finds.
- In Saudi Arabia, China’s central bank governor pushes for a new global financial consensus — China’s central bank governor has offered to deepen financial ties with emerging economies and help them gain a greater voice in the IMF.
Nikkei Asia
- DeepSeek shows open-sourcing AI models boosts adoption: Baidu CEO — Search giant’s Q4 revenue shrank amid increasing pressure in AI.
- Opinion: China is upping the ante in space. The West should worry — The final frontier is becoming the next battleground in the second Cold War. By Jeff Huggins.
Bloomberg
- ByteDance’s US Backers Say China Growth to Counter Any TikTok Ban Damage — Some American ByteDance investors say they don’t need US TikTok for success.
- How Temu’s Online Dollar Store Became a Trade War Target — Millions of people love the Chinese shopping app. Trump doesn’t appear to be one of them.
- China Revamps Power Market Rules In Challenge to Renewables Boom — China’s unprecedented boom in renewable energy is facing a fresh challenge from government rules that will allow market forces to determine the price of new wind and solar power.
Reuters
- Xi Jinping’s graft crackdown is fight without end — It’s 12 years since Xi Jinping launched his crackdown on graft with a promise to catch “flies” as well as “tigers”.
- Hedge funds tailor win-win bets on China — Global hedge funds keen to navigate U.S.-China trade tensions are amassing Chinese stock bets in the hopes of making huge profits if Beijing forms a pact with Donald Trump.
- China promises Latin America ‘trustworthy’ ties as Trump lays out demands — Bolivia, which established diplomatic ties with Beijing in 1985, is among many countries in South America that have bonded economically with China through debt and investment.
Other Publications
- Foreign Policy: Trump Could Make China Great Again — Beijing won’t say so in public, but it sees new geopolitical opportunities.
- Foreign Affairs: A Better Tool to Counter China’s Unfair Trade Practices — End the Tax Advantage for Chinese Investors in U.S. Markets.
- The Washington Post: Trump wants Greenland and Gaza. That might embolden China on Taiwan. — Trump’s transactional style is unnerving many in Taiwan, who fear it will encourage Chinese leader Xi Jinping in his ambitions to take control of the island.
- Brookings: Thoughts on the political demise of Miao Hua — What was once improbable in Chinese politics has now become yet another symptom of a new normal.
- The Verge: Electricity demand surges for the world’s two biggest polluters — China and the US face similar challenges — rising electricity demand from data centers and manufacturing.
