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
- Meta Is Preparing to Have to Undo Its Manus Acquisition After China Ban — The ban sends a message that China is intent on keeping its AI knowledge within the country.
- Chinese Battery Giant CATL Aims to Raise $5 Billion via Share Placement — The company is angling to capture growing demand for power batteries and energy-storage batteries.
- BYD’s Quarterly Profit Slides 55% — Weak performance in the Chinese automaker’s home market offset strong growth overseas.
- Opinion: China’s AI ‘Hotel California’ — Beijing kills Meta’s purchase of Manus in fear of talent flight. By The Editorial Board.
The Financial Times
- BYD profits drop by more than half as Chinese sales slow — Phasing out of electric vehicle subsidies has driven slump in domestic sales growth following years-long boom.
- Export restrictions on critical materials up fivefold since 2009, says OECD — Analysis shows rise in trade curbs affecting defence, tech and green energy supply chains.
- World’s biggest battery maker CATL to raise $5bn — Chinese group rides surge in foreign investor interest in renewable energy stocks since outbreak of war in Iran.
- Why investors are chasing U.S. biotechs with Chinese characteristics — Drugs developed in Asian nation are increasingly being used to seed U.S. start-ups
- After conquering nickel, Indonesia sets its sights on aluminium — Analysts fear Chinese-funded build-up of smelters will lead to oversupply.
- Adrift in the South — the stark memoir of a Chinese factory labourer — Xiao Hai tells a story of shattered dreams and the grim reality of conditions inside China’s manufacturing sector.
- Opinion: Meta’s Chinese stumble suggests a declining tolerance for shades of grey — Tech-related capital flows have benefited from decades of ambiguity, but AI changes the calculus. By Lex.
Caixin
- PwC’s Evergrande Crisis Deepens With Record Hong Kong Settlement and Criminal Probes — The accounting giant faces a HK$1 billion investor-compensation fund, a separate HK$300 million fine and mounting scrutiny of partners tied to the developer’s audits.
- Bona Film Wins Approval for China’s First AI Movie in Theaters — The 90-minute sci-fi feature uses ByteDance’s AI video technology and has been classified as animation.
- XPeng Plans Overseas Production Push as Tariffs Bite — The Chinese electric-car maker is leaning on contract manufacturing in Europe, Southeast Asia and Latin America to lower the cost of global expansion.
- China’s Space Insurance Consortium Covers Over $1.4 Billion in Private Launch Risks — Beijing consortium insures 25 launches, expands support for private space sector.
South China Morning Post
- Un-sanctioned: China to welcome Dutch trade minister amid Nexperia, ASML discord — Source says Beijing has quietly dropped an old sanctioning of Sjoerd Sjoerdsma, who recently spoke of wanting to lead a Dutch trade mission to China.
- Nobel laureate biochemist Hartmut Michel joins Jilin University in China — The 77-year-old has taken up a full-time role as a professor with one of the leading teaching hospitals in the country’s northeast.
- DeepSeek mystery: who is speaking for start-up as CEO Liang Wenfeng remains out of sight? — Researcher Chen Deli is emerging as DeepSeek’s new public face as speculation over the whereabouts of the company’s founder and CEO lingers.
Nikkei Asia
- China’s carmakers surge past Japan, European peers with AI, battery tech — Automakers no longer need foreign JV partners as they look overseas
- Samsung eyes exit from China TV, appliance sales to focus on U.S. — South Korean group struggles to compete on price with Chinese brands.
- Japan chemical maker to quintuple China output for key battery material — Nippon Shokubai bets on rising demand for electrolyte for EV, storage cells.
- China’s block of Meta-Manus deal spooks entrepreneurs and investors — Beijing willing to wield long regulatory arm to protect technology deemed Chinese.
Bloomberg
- China Races to Build Record Biobank to Rival U.S. Drugs Research — The massive infrastructure push has taken on greater urgency since the U.S. and EU began excluding Chinese scientists from accessing some of its most sensitive data.
- BYD, Geely Results to Provide Pointers in China EV Stock Rivalry — Key points for investors include growth in overseas markets, and if it is helping offset weak demand and margin pressures in the domestic market.
Reuters
- Exclusive: China’s Hongqi, once favoured by Mao, eyes Stellantis Spain plant for European expansion — Talks could accelerate Hongqi’s European expansion and its plans to launch more than a dozen EV and hybrid models in the region by 2028.
- Meta pokes holes in China’s great AI firewall — The country wants its technology champions to go global, but not to leave home.
Other Publications
- Foreign Policy: What Five Decades of Summits Reveal About U.S.-China Relations — The real test for the Trump-Xi meeting will come afterwards.
- The Guardian: EU faces ‘China shock’ as EV imports drive Beijing’s record surplus with bloc — China sold goods worth about $148 billion to the EU in the first quarter of the year, but imported just $65 billion.
- The Economist: Xi Jinping wants China to read more — as long as it’s the right books — A new campaign to put down phones and pick up classics.
- Brookings: What policy choices does the U.S. face on Chinese clean energy investment? — Three experts agreed that some form of Chinese involvement in the U.S.clean energy sector is probably inevitable.
