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
- U.S. Arms Sale to Taiwan in Limbo Amid Pressure Campaign From China — Some U.S. officials are worried that greenlighting the weapons deal would derail Trump’s coming trip to Beijing.
- China Should Shift Economic Gears to Consumption-Led Growth, IMF Says — IMF projects growth of 4.5% this year, reflecting the prolonged effects of tariffs and trade uncertainty.
- Higher U.S. Tariffs Not to Blame for Jump in Chinese Exports to Europe, ECB Says — The central bank’s economists say the increase in exports from China was due to developments under way before Trump hiked tariffs.
The Financial Times
- IMF calls on China to cut industrial subsidies in half — International concerns have mounted over the impact of the country’s economic policies.
- Opinion: Is an AI price war about to begin? — Assumptions underpinning valuations of big U.S. groups might be too optimistic. By June Yoon.
The New York Times
- Stock Slide and Slow Sales: What’s Happening in China’s E.V. Market? — Investors are selling shares of Chinese E.V. companies, concerned that intensifying competition and shorter production cycles mean the years of easy growth are over.
Caixin
- China’s Tech Giants Wage Lunar New Year Subsidy War to Win AI Users — Alibaba, Tencent and ByteDance flood the holiday with digital red envelopes, driving billions of interactions and rapid AI adoption across smaller cities and older consumers.
South China Morning Post
- Chinese AI and robotics firms appoint millennial and Gen Z rising stars as chief scientists — Young talent drive AI innovation at Chinese tech firms, focusing on fundamental research and strategic planning for future technologies.
- Why China’s fast turnaround gives its projects an edge in Kenya over the West — A Kenyan investment agency says most projects signed off in 2025, including a steel processing plant were either operational or being built.
Nikkei Asia
- Formations of thousands of Chinese fishing boats stir worries in Japan — ‘Huge mobilization’ in East China Sea seen as possible maritime militia training.
- Isolated Xi Jinping directly presses for soldiers’ loyalty — The supreme leader can no longer trust generals amid a wave of military purges.
- How Peak Energy is using table salt to break China’s battery stranglehold — Materials for sodium-ion batteries are abundant, but supply chain hurdles remains.
- UK flirtation with Chinese auditing spotlights little-used listing path — Handful of tech-related companies trade as GDRs in Europe, with mixed financial performance.
Bloomberg
- Nissan Americas Head Embraces Threat From Chinese Car Brands — He said the competition will make the industry stronger and benefit the car-buying public.
Reuters
- How China plans to dominate global trade long after Trump — A Reuters review of 100 Chinese-language articles by state-backed trade scholars written since 2017 reveals a systematic push by China’s policy advisers to reverse-engineer U.S. trade policy and neutralize Washington’s containment strategy.
- German carmakers need China to compete globally, BMW CEO says ahead of Merz trip — German companies invested the most in four years in the Chinese market in 2025.
Other Publications
- The Economist: China’s humanoids are dazzling the world. Who will buy them? — The market for robot dancers, alas, is limited.
- Foreign Affairs: Energy Dominance With Chinese Characteristics — Why Beijing Holds the Power in the Century Ahead.
- Brookings: America’s narrative on Taiwan needs an update — America’s project is not to fight China or abandon Taiwan, Ryan Hass writes, but to encourage progress toward a peaceful and non-coercive resolution of cross-Strait differences.
- Brookings: Redrawing global boundaries? The United States, China, and the viability of spheres of influence in the 21st century — As the U.S. shifts its strategic focus closer to home, fundamental questions emerge about the viability of a modern spheres of influence framework.
