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
- Meituan Posts Quarterly Loss as Price War Continues — The Chinese food-delivery giant continued to bleed from a brutal price war, posting a second straight quarter in the red.
- China’s MiniMax Wants AI to Be Your New Work ‘Bestie’ — As AI models become more capable of completing complex tasks, MiniMax is betting on AI becoming an integral part of workers’ daily lives.
- Trump’s Ambivalence on Taiwan Opens a Historic Opportunity for China — Deterring an attack on the island has been a bedrock American policy for 75 years. Xi Jinping sees a chance to change that.
The Financial Times
- Chinese pig prices lowest in 16 years — Pork prices are also plummeting after hog farmers dramatically expanded production.
- Hong Kong weighs ‘big bang’ tax cuts for asset managers — Expansion of carried interest regime could mean zero levies on performance fees at hedge funds.
- The rise of China’s hottest new commodity: AI tokens — Chinese AI models made by groups such as DeepSeek and MiniMax have overtaken US rivals in token consumption.
- UK says Chinese wind turbine maker poses national security threat — Ming Yang’s plans to build Scottish factory to supply offshore wind farms thwarted.
- PDD’s magic money machine keeps turning — Yet the Temu-owner continues to hoard every cent.
The New York Times
- Chinese Education Influencer’s Sudden Death Prompts Grief, and Reflection — The influencer, Zhang Xuefeng, was known for no-nonsense, some said cynical, advice about how to win in China’s educational rat race. He died at 41.
- Trump Had His Eye on China, Then Plunged Into a New Mideast War — The Trump administration said the Middle East would “recede” in importance as the China challenge took priority. But the president started the war in Iran.
Caixin
- China’s Costly Drug Plan Puts Insurers Under Pressure — Fragmented rollout and payout pressures test insurers’ ability to cover high-cost therapies.
- Influential Economist Ba Shusong Goes Silent After Months of Travel Ban Rumors — Sudden silence from well-connected academic and former HKEX adviser sparks speculation amid broader financial-sector scrutiny.
- Ex-PBOC Governor Urges Global Policy Coordination, Warns on Tariffs — Speaking at the Boao Forum for Asia, Zhou Xiaochuan says trade tensions and tariffs risk complicating efforts to address global imbalances.
- Bringing Humanoid Robots to Market Could Be Anywhere From Two Years to a Decade Away, Experts Say — SenseTime co-founder Wang Xiaogang expects the tipping point to arrive by 2027 as the amount of data grows, but Shao Hao, chief robotics scientist at Vivo, estimates commercialization is still 10 years away due to the complexity of the data needed.
- How a State Aviation Giant’s Ex-Chief Amassed $101 Million in Ill-Gotten Gains — A Chinese court handed former AVIC Chairman Tan Ruisong a suspended death sentence after finding he engaged in bribery, embezzlement and insider trading over more than two decades.
South China Morning Post
- Why China’s strategy to stay out of Iran war is working – and crisis may spur opportunity — Beijing happy to watch, wait and safeguard core interests – oil flows, Taiwan and trade – as its geopolitical rival spends resources on war.
- Chinese nationals, companies charged in US with smuggling AI chips and drug trafficking — Two different cases refer to smuggling of American-made advanced AI chips to China through Thailand and an alleged fentanyl supply chain.
- Singapore leader sees China helping small groups realise big results for Asia — Beijing could also spearhead areas like AI governance and play greater role in promoting economic prosperity, he adds.
Nikkei Asia
- Xi Jinping finds himself in a Japan-US dilemma — The Chinese leader wants to attack Sanae Takaichi but not Donald Trump.
- China’s COSCO resumes Asia-Gulf shipment bookings halted due to Iran war — Move comes as Tehran promises that non-hostile ships can pass through Hormuz.
- China says talks underway with US over Trump’s delayed visit — Meeting seen as key to sustaining trade truce, future Trump-Xi meetings.
Bloomberg
- Dominican Republic Is Next Frontier in US-China Space Race — China has made space cooperation one of the pillars of its outreach to Latin America, offering developing nations infrastructure and expertise.
- China’s Official Calm Belies a War Battering Small Factories — The gap between Beijing’s studied calm and the gathering pain on China’s factory floors was on full display at the Boao Forum, with officials making only veiled references to global instability.
- China’s CXMT Rides AI Boom to Record Revenue Ahead of IPO — ChangXin Memory Technologies Inc. more than doubled revenue to $8 billion in 2025, due to surging prices for storage chips.
Reuters
- US lawmakers to introduce bill to ban government use of Chinese robots — Lawmakers argued that such robots present a national security risk because they could be used to gather data to send back to China or could be remotely controlled from China.
Other Publications
- Foreign Policy: Xi Jinping Is Targeting China’s Christians — A harsh religious crackdown has caught pastors in its net.
- Foreign Policy: No, China Doesn’t Want Spheres of Influence — Such a view both overstates and understates the scope of Beijing’s ambitions.
- The Guardian: ‘They can reach me wherever’: China using financial tactics to coerce people who flee, says report — UK urged to tackle transnational repression, as dissidents say Beijing has targeted them with tax bills and other threats.
