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 Automakers’ Sales Largely Fail to Gallop Into New Year — Automakers broadly recorded a sharp drop in sales in February as demand in the world’s largest auto industry waned during the Lunar New Year month.
- China’s ‘Two Sessions’ to Shed Light on What Lies Ahead for Economy — At the National People’s Congress, representatives are expected to approve a five-year economic blueprint that will prioritize turning China into a technological superpower.
- Opinion: China Wins the Pentagon-Anthropic Brawl — Trump goes nuclear on the AI firm, in a needless display of brute government punishment. By The Editorial Board.
The Financial Times
- BYD’s February sales fall by most since pandemic — Hit to Chinese EV champion marks striking change from years of largely uninterrupted growth.
- China solar boom helps energy emissions fall slightly in 2025 — Official statistics show 0.3% decline even as total power demand rises.
- DeepSeek to release long-awaited AI model in new challenge to US rivals — Chinese AI group has worked with Huawei to cut reliance on Nvidia chips.
- China’s central bank moves to slow renminbi’s advance — PBoC makes it cheaper for traders to bet on weakening currency amid concerns about rapid appreciation.
The New York Times
- Beyond a Trade War, China, Japan and Others in Asia Face a New Energy Threat — China and its neighbors scrambled to soften the blow of a disorderly trade war. Conflict in the Middle East now threatens to disrupt the oil imports that power their economies.
- In Alysa Liu and Eileen Gu, China and America See a Mirror Image — The Olympic athletes are the subject of uncomfortable public comparisons that present online narratives that overlap more than both sides may realize.
- China’s Parents Are Outsourcing the Homework Grind to A.I. — Parents in China are turning to A.I. chatbots and other tools to help their children gain an edge and ease the fighting over homework.
- The American Comedian Who Became a Funnyman in China — Jesse Appell left everything behind to pursue a comedy career in China, where Western-style club comedy was just finding its footing.
- Former U.S. Air Force Officer Is Accused of Training Chinese Military Pilots — The former officer traveled to China to train pilots of the People’s Liberation Army Air Force without approval from the State Department, the Justice Department said.
- Taiwan Arms Sale Approved by Congress Is Delayed as Trump Plans Visit to Beijing — The package worth billions of dollars and endorsed by lawmakers is stalled at the State Department as the U.S. and China plan an April summit.
- China Took His City. And Now His Father. — An interview with Sebastien Lai, whose father, Jimmy Lai, was arrested over his participation in the 2019 protests in Hong Kong.
Caixin
- China’s Sweeping Banking Law Rewrite Targets Hidden Risks — Draft amendment would extend regulatory power beyond lenders to the shadowy shareholders, third-party enablers and wayward employees.
- Why China Is Moving to Shore Up Insurance Giants — Special sovereign bonds could be used for the first time to bolster insurers’ capital as solvency pressure builds.
- China New Economy Gauge Rises as Tech, Labor Inputs Improve — High value-added industries accounted for 33.8% of total economic inputs in February, Caixin index shows.
South China Morning Post
- How much for foreign prestige? China says no to some Western science journal fees — Chinese researchers will no longer be reimbursed for paper publication charges in Nature Communications, among other titles.
- Iran attack seen as ‘wake-up call’ for China on electronic warfare and intelligence — China must guard ‘against internal infiltration and intelligence leaks, and reinforce security around critical targets’: retired PLA colonel.
- Inside Xi Jinping’s new guide to promoting Communist Party officials — Chinese leader targets ‘two-faced’ officials and demands new benchmarks tailored to local needs in newly released speeches.
Nikkei Asia
- After Iran, China faces ‘difficult calculus’ on Trump, oil and Taiwan — Beijing summit in question as analysts debate how conflict alters superpower dynamics.
- 1 in 4 China-listed firms in red last year on weak consumer spending — Ratio of companies posting net losses was highest since 2000.
- China’s Baidu enlists AI agent to reboot search engine business — OpenClaw added to search bar to boost convenience for nearly 700m active users.
Bloomberg
- China Showing Few Signs It Will Directly Supply Arms to Iran — China officially stopped selling weapons to Iran after 2005, but the supply of Chinese dual-use items provides a cover of deniability.
- China Spent Big on an African Media Empire, But No One’s Watching — Viewers on the continent still strongly prefer local sources and Western outlets such as the BBC and CNN.
- China’s Five-Year Plan to Target Fixes to Commodities Supply — Chinese leaders will launch a pivotal five-year plan this week that’ll help shape global commodities markets through the end of the decade.
Reuters
- China’s annual parliament meet to unveil roadmap for tech race with the West — The challenge for Beijing is how to turn individual breakthroughs into systematic, large-scale gains across manufacturing, logistics and energy.
Other Publications
- Foreign Policy: China Is Running Short of Donkey for Dinner — The shortage of a popular regional specialty is shaking global meat markets.
- Foreign Affairs: China’s AI Arsenal — The PLA’s Tech Strategy Is Working.
- AP News: As China’s economy slows, some young people are snapping up cheap apartments to ‘retire’ early — some young professionals have called it quits altogether and joined a resistance movement called “lying flat”.
- Rest of World: Trump opens for Vietnam the chip door he locked on China — Washington’s move to lift export controls could turn Vietnam from a chip assembly hub into a manufacturing partner — and a strategic alternative to China.
