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
- Ant’s Bright Smart Deal May Face Higher Regulatory Scrutiny — The Alibaba affiliate’s plan to acquire a controlling stake in the Hong Kong-listed brokerage could be delayed, as more mainland Chinese regulators contemplate reviewing the proposal.
- Chinese Imports Fell During Trump’s First Term. It’s Happening Again. — As other Asian countries ramp up manufacturing, the U.S. snaps up fewer Chinese goods.
- Trump’s Tariffs Stymie India’s Bid to Steal Manufacturing From China — When companies realized they needed to diversify away from China, India was the natural choice. Now, U.S. tariffs threaten that.
- Geely Automobile’s First-Half Profit Fell Despite Higher Revenue — The carmaker said it has stepped up exports of its mainstream electric cars and plug-in hybrids to more international markets in the second half of the year.
The Financial Times
- DeepSeek’s next AI model delayed by attempt to use Chinese chips — Difficulties of training the start-up’s latest system with Huawei’s semiconductors highlight dependence on Nvidia.
The New York Times
- How China Went From Clean Energy Copycat to Global Innovator — A surge in high quality research and patent applications has cemented China’s dominance in the industry.
Caixin
- China Retools Its Universities for the New Economy — To better prepare graduates for the current workforce, Chinese universities are cutting traditional majors and adding programs in high-tech fields.
- Record Spending on Belt and Road Initiative Targets Energy and Mineral Resources — Strategic pivot sees more money being invested in the energy and mining sectors.
- Behind China’s Divergence of Soaring Money and Slowing Loans — The growth of China’s money supply exceeded market expectations in July. New loans and total social financing, however, came in lower than anticipated.
- China Aims to Boost Consumption With Loan Subsidies — China has launched two new stimulus measures to subsidize interest payments on loans to consumers and service providers, as the country steps up efforts to boost domestic consumption.
- Opinion: How to Bridge China’s Rural-Urban Pension Gap — The 2024 National Aging Affairs Development Report shows that as of the end of 2024, there were 310.31 million people aged 60 and over, accounting for 22.0% of the total population. By Zhang Hongyu.
South China Morning Post
- China’s mega dam Xiluodu stops using Western industrial chips over security concerns — Shift from Siemens and Schneider reflects concerns over industrial control system vulnerabilities, including computer worms like Stuxnet.
- China’s Ganfeng to develop major lithium project in Argentina with Swiss partner — Move follows closure of China’s Jianxiawo mine.
- World’s top hedge fund Bridgewater dumps all China stocks in retreat from market — World’s largest hedge fund drops US$1.41 billion of shares in firms including Alibaba, JD.com, Baidu, Nio and Yum China in second quarter.
Nikkei Asia
- Anti-US summit in Tianjin to follow Trump-Putin Alaska meeting — Washington’s stance against India is a godsend for China’s trade negotiators.
- Applied Materials sued by China rival over alleged trade secrets theft — Beijing E-town Semiconductor seeks damages and cease and desist order.
- Tencent says it has ample chips for AI training amid reported purchase halt — Q2 sales greatly beat expectations as AI continues to power ads and games.
Bloomberg
- China Mulls Asking Firms Run by Central Government to Buy Homes — The move to buy unsold homes from distressed developers follows the limited success of a previous initiative that relied on local governments.
- Starbucks Struggles to Find a New Identity in Cutthroat China — Private equity investors and Chinese technology companies suggest that Starbucks should have smaller stores, employ fewer people, and cut prices to revive its fortunes in China.
- China Sees Backlash Over Mandatory Social Security Payments — A ruling by China’s highest court bars informal arrangements between companies and their employees to opt out of mandatory social insurance payments from Sept. 1.
Reuters
- China pharma firms turn to local reagent suppliers to cut costs and delivery times — Western reagent suppliers including U.S.-based Thermo Fisher Scientific and Germany’s Merck profited in the world’s second-largest pharmaceutical market from the compounds used in lab tests for analysis and quality control.
- Chinese hotels turn to hawking food as guests tighten belts — Beijing’s moves earlier this year to reinforce austerity and discipline among public sector workers and party members, including bans on dining out in large groups and curbs on alcohol consumption, have also hurt business.
- Chinese investors eyeing Indonesia to avoid US tariffs, tap local market — Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s biggest economy and the world’s fourth most populous country, has an edge over its neighbours – the potential of its vast consumer market.
Other Publications
- Foreign Policy: China Can Help Trump and Putin End the War in Ukraine — Seven-party talks in Beijing leading to a U.N.-backed peacekeeping force could help secure peace.
- The Economist: Xi Jinping’s weaponisation of rare-earth elements will ultimately backfire — How the West can break China’s grip on these vital minerals.
- The Economist: Trump wants to command bosses like Xi does. He is failing — His dealings with business borrow from China’s playbook.
- The Verge: Tensor wants to be the first company to sell you a ‘robocar’ — but who are they? — The company says it’s based in San Jose, but it appears to be connected to an autonomous vehicle developer with ties to China.
- The Washington Post: Inside Thailand’s frantic effort to close tariff loopholes to the U.S. — Supply chains through Southeast Asia are “China-centered,” economists say. Changing that is a herculean task.
- The Washington Post: Opinion: China cries foul over Labubu counterfeits. That’s rich. — Intellectual property has been a one-way street for too long. Trump’s trade talks could help. By The Editorial Board.
