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 EV Battery Giant CATL’s Shares Surge on Hong Kong Debut — Shares opened 13% higher compared with their listing price of $33.63 a share.
- China Cuts Benchmark Lending Rates — The one-year loan prime rate was lowered to 3.0% and the five-year rate was reduced to 3.5%.
The Financial Times
- Baiont’s Feng Ji: Quant managers who don’t adopt AI will be eliminated by the market — The founder of one of China’s top-performing quant funds explains how his team of young computer scientists are using machine learning to disrupt the sector.
- Chinese defence minister set to skip defence forum in Singapore — Admiral Dong Jun’s absence from Shangri-La Dialogue would come as President Xi Jinping purges high-level officers.
- Chinese battery maker CATL surges 16% in biggest listing of 2025 — Strong demand for secondary offering in Hong Kong expected to lift amount raised to $5.3bn.
- China’s Xi steps up calls for industrial self-sufficiency amid trade war — Beijing’s emphasis on manufacturing has widened imbalances and drawn complaints from foreign companies.
- Will China be the first electrostate? — Beijing dominates in solar, wind, electric cars, rail and batteries.
The New York Times
- G.M. Stops Exporting Cars to China — The decision affects relatively few vehicles because the vast majority that General Motors sells there are made in that country.
- Chinese Battery Giant Surges in Hong Kong Market Debut — Shares of the company, CATL, surged in their first day of trading. Onshore U.S. investors were blocked from buying its stock as a “decoupling” of finance continued.
- China’s Fighter Jets and Missiles Get a Boost From the India-Pakistan Clash — The reported success of Chinese-made fighter jets and air-to-air missiles in the conflict has fed nationalist pride in China, and has renewed warnings to Taiwan.
Caixin
- Huawei Unveils HarmonyOS PCs in Challenge to Windows–MacOS Duopoly — The new products arrive as access to U.S. technology tightens.
- Trade Truce Rekindles Global Investor Interest in China — In the wake of the tariff ceasefire, economic forecasts have been upgraded and funds are flowing back into Chinese markets.
- China to Overhaul Prison Law in Push for Greater Transparency — Officials and legal experts have argued that the current law is ill-equipped to handle new challenges, such as the management of sick inmates and the need for verifying information on newly admitted prisoners.
South China Morning Post
- U.S. port most dependent on China trade braces for new tariff impact after 90-day truce — Container traffic up in April ahead of U.S. import tariffs, but first week of May saw a 30 per cent plunge in container volume.
- How critical minerals became Beijing’s ultimate trump card in U.S.-China trade war — Beijing is still tightening its grip over supplies of rare earths and other key minerals despite the tariff truce, allowing it to cut off U.S. access at will.
Nikkei Asia
- Singapore’s private banks use finance boot camps to target wealthy Chinese scions — City-state’s lenders see heirs of family fortunes as key potential market.
- Hong Kong woos Gulf states as Trump launches charm offensive in the region — City aligns with China’s push for influence, sidesteps human rights concerns.
Bloomberg
- Malaysia Downplays Huawei Deal As U.S. Aims To Curb China AI Power — Malaysia is in many ways the perfect test of the Trump administration’s new-fashioned AI diplomacy.
- China Gives EU Business Groups High-Level Meetings to Boost Ties — President Xi Jinping is seeking to deepen economic ties with Europe and other economies to combat the impact of America’s most disruptive tariff regime in nearly a century.
- China Ran Record Budget Deficit With Spending Blitz Amid Tariffs — It’s the clearest evidence yet that Beijing shifted into a higher gear in deploying this year’s planned fiscal stimulus to help the economy weather external shocks.
Reuters
- Exclusive: Shanghai exchange looks to open domestic nickel contract to foreigners this year, sources say — ShFE is organising a two-day meeting in Shanghai on Thursday and Friday for the metals industry where the nickel contract plans will be discussed, two sources said.
- China’s electricity generation may be like its economy: Not as soft as it looks — As with other indicators, the full impact of the trade war and the subsequent pause of the worst of tariffs have yet to be felt.
- China entices savers to cross risky Rubicon — Savers may shift more of their record 160 trillion yuan ($22 trillion) parked in bank accounts into stocks, long a Beijing goal.
Other Publications
- POLITICO: China’s head start on clean energy is shaping the debate on the Republicans’ megabill — Efforts to preserve Biden-era tax breaks for green technology are running into an administration focused on fossil fuels — and unwilling to play on what it sees as Beijing’s turf.
- WIRED: China’s Effort to Build a Competitor to Starlink Is Off to a Bumpy Start — China has launched over 100 satellites for two broadband networks that could eventually rival the service from Elon Musk’s SpaceX, but progress is hampered by launch bottlenecks and high failure rates.
- Foreign Affairs: The Taiwan Tightrope — Deterrence Is a Balancing Act, and America Is Starting to Slip.
- CSIS: United States and China: Who’s Zoomin’ Who? — China is not going to restructure its economy or its export practices to suit the U.S., and the U.S. is not going to weaken its technology controls to suit China.
- The Washington Post: Opinion: The U.S. must break China’s chokehold on our rare earth magnet supply — Washington must be able to produce its most important defense capabilities without asking Beijing. By Rob Wittman and Nadia Schadlow.
