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
- Chinese Carmaker Geely Makes Bid to Take EV Firm Zeekr Private — Electric-vehicle brand Zeekr went public in the U.S. last year.
- Fentanyl Crisis Provided Opening for U.S.-China Trade Talks — Planned meeting in Switzerland to be first direct talks over trade during Trump’s second term.
- The Bubble Blasters and Other Chinese Goods That Are Paralyzed by Trade Chaos — American importers cancel orders and scramble for alternatives, while Chinese factories cut staff and offload goods.
- U.S. to Overhaul Curbs on AI Chip Exports After Industry Backlash — Rule limiting many countries’ access to American technology was set to take effect next week.
- Opinion: China Challenges the Next Pope — Beijing seeks to replace the Vatican’s approved bishop in Xinxiang. By The Editorial Board.
The Financial Times
- U.S .scraps Biden-era rule that aimed to limit exports of AI chips — Prospect of overhaul to planned regulation offers relief to semiconductor companies such as Nvidia.
- China’s Xi attacks U.S. ‘hegemony’ ahead of Putin summit — Chinese and Russian presidents to signal strength of their alliance in Moscow meeting.
- Geely to take EV unit Zeekr private a year after New York float — Chinese auto group blames ‘increasingly complex economic environment’, as it faces rising competition in home market.
- Are investors making another run at Hong Kong’s dollar peg? — GLWT
- Opinion: China’s ageing population powers the insurance sector — Life and health insurers are benefiting from both long-term demographic tailwinds and the AI revolution. By June Yoon.
The New York Times
- Trump Says U.S. Won’t Drop Tariffs Ahead of China Talks — The Treasury secretary and trade representative plan to meet with Chinese officials this weekend to discuss trade and economic matters.
- The C.E.O. of Detroit Axle Gave Trump’s Tariffs a Chance. Now He’s Nervous. — The chief executive of Detroit Axle, which sells car parts that are mostly imported from China, is adjusting his business and hoping for a new trade deal.
- Opinion: What I Learned in China: Obedience Gets You Nowhere — A call for showing courage against tyrants. By Yaqiu Wang.
Caixin
- China Accelerates Sci-Tech Bond Plan to Fuel Innovation, Aiming for $40 Billion in Issuance — Target industries for the new tech bond include AI, semiconductors, quantum computing and biotech.
- Decoding the Incremental Moves in China’s New Stimulus Package — China’s policy measures aim to stabilize market expectations and support economic recovery as trade tensions escalate.
- Chinese E-Commerce App DHgate Tumbles From Top of U.S. Download Ranking — The wholesale marketplace app falls to 29th place on Apple’s U.S. App Store after Washington closes crucial tariff loophole.
- Fortescue Metals Chief Sees Future for Iron Ore Beyond Chinese Demand Peak — CEO Dino Otranto warns that many in the industry are underestimating how supply of the mineral may change in the future.
South China Morning Post
- CSRC streamlines IPOs as China doubles down on ‘high-level’ market opening amid trade war — CSRC to help high-quality firms listed overseas offer shares in mainland China and Hong Kong, chairman Wu Qing says.
- Next stop, Egypt? Trade war sends China’s exporters scouring globe for new markets — To continue sales to US buyers and avoid tariffs, Chinese exporters are getting creative as they hunt for new bypasses and workarounds.
- Hong Kong IPOs outshine broader market spurred by inflows from global, Chinese funds — Shares of Chinese bubble-tea chain Auntea Jenny surge as they join growing list of companies with stellar debuts.
Nikkei Asia
- China Railway’s debt climbs higher even as profits recover — Company seeks to stoke demand as spending on new lines swells.
- Chicken feet to fish heads: China’s tariffs threaten U.S. variety meat — Low domestic demand leaves exporters scrambling to find other markets.
- Tsingtao enters traditional Chinese wine as beer market tanks — BudAPAC endures another quarter with double-digit sales drop in China.
Bloomberg
- Bubble Tea Billionaire Ranks Swell After Latest Hong Kong IPO — Auntea Jenny joins a wave of tea shops who have made fortunes as chains explode in popularity.
Reuters
- Exclusive: US sanctions on China refiners over Iran oil disrupt operations, sources say — Washington’s sanctions have begun to deter larger independent Chinese refiners from buying Iranian crude, sources said.
- Iron ore tells a different story to the China tariff pain narrative — The overall picture so far this year for iron ore is that any import weakness is down to supply disruptions, and that China’s demand has remained relatively solid.
- Chinese premier to visit Malaysia for key ASEAN-Gulf summit, sources say — The visit of China’s second-ranked official comes shortly after President Xi Jinping visited Malaysia.
Other Publications
- The Atlantic: The Disturbing Rise of MAGA Maoism — Trump seems to be ceding the future to China while emulating its past.
- Associated Press: How a Chinese delicacy got caught in the crossfire of Trump’s trade war — The escalating trade war between the U.S. and China is now crippling an entire industry that hand-harvests geoducks, leaving Washington state divers without work, Seattle exporters without business and Chinese aficionados with fewer of these prized clams.
- The Washington Post: See how Shein outfits cost more under Trump’s trade war — The fast-fashion retailer made use of a long-standing tariff exemption for Chinese imports that ended Friday.
- Rest of World: Casualties of the U.S.–China trade war: humanoid robots — AI humanoid robots use advanced chips from the U.S. and parts from China. Trump’s trade war is complicating production.
- WIRED: Singapore’s Vision for AI Safety Bridges the U.S.-China Divide — In a rare moment of global consensus, AI researchers from the U.S., Europe, and Asia came together in Singapore to form a plan for researching AI risks.
