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
- JD.com Beats Profit Expectations; Food-Delivery Losses — It achieved $750.6 million in first-quarter net profit, reversing the net loss posted in the final quarter of last year.
- China Central Bank Warns on Imported Inflation Risks — Higher oil and commodity prices have had some impact on the recent rebound in China’s price indicators, it said.
- China’s Kuaishou Plans Spinoff of AI Unit That Could Be Valued at $20 Billion — Kuaishou aims to list Kling in Hong Kong next year, said people familiar with the matter.
- How Xi Is Playing His Iran Cards as Trump Heads to Beijing — Beijing wants to be essential to the Middle East without doing anything essential.
- Bristol-Myers Squibb and China’s Hengrui Pharma Forge Tie-Up — The two companies will collaborate to advance 13 early stage drug programs.
- Opinion: Trump Heads to Beijing With a Strong Hand — Slanted media insist Xi holds all the cards, but the U.S. could get concessions if it presses its advantage. By Thomas J. Duesterberg.
The Financial Times
- U.S. communications regulator targets Chinese tech for security risks — FCC chair Brendan Carr cracks down on goods from drones to routers despite trade thaw with Beijing.
- France presses EU to crack down on platforms like Shein and Temu — Platforms are selling unsafe items including overheating hairdryers and exploding batteries, warns consumer body.
- Will investors embrace China’s humanoid robot champion? — Unitree aims to go public later this year in a crucial test for android industry.
- Opinion: BYD and peers make strides in every market but their own — Beijing is switching its attention to newer sectors such as AI and robotics. By Lex.
- Opinion: A weakened Trump arrives at Xi’s court — China holds the cards — and might settle for flashy but empty announcements while playing a long game. By Gideon Rachman.
The New York Times
- China Increasingly Views Trump’s America as an Empire in Decline — For decades, many Chinese viewed the United States with a mix of admiration, envy and resentment. President Trump’s volatile second term shattered that image.
- Chief Executives to Accompany Trump to China — The delegation includes business leaders across a wide range of industries, including Tim Cook of Apple and Elon Musk of Tesla.
- China Seeks A.I. Independence, Weakening Trump’s Leverage — Before this week’s U.S.-Chinese summit, Beijing reached a milestone in its quest for technological self-sufficiency.
- Xi Is Poised to Press Trump on Arms Sales to Taiwan — Beijing has called Taiwan the “core of China’s core interests.” Xi Jinping is likely to focus on getting President Trump to slow approval of more weapons for the self-governing island.
- China Sought Access to Anthropic’s Newest A.I. The Answer Was No. — The latest artificial intelligence models from Anthropic and OpenAI are extending the United States’ lead over China and intensifying the rivalry between the countries.
- How the U.S. Is Trying to Ensure the Dollar’s Dominance During Economic Turmoil — As the government has been devising plans to keep the dollar dominant, China has been making its own moves to increase global influence of the renminbi.
- Arcadia Mayor Eileen Wang Will Plead Guilty to Working as Agent of China — Eileen Wang, who resigned Monday as the mayor of Arcadia, Calif., published propaganda on a purported news site under direction from Chinese officials, prosecutors said.
- Opinion: The U.S. and China Are Hurtling Toward a Shared A.I. Future — There is a shared sense of precarity that lies beneath the envy and distrust. By Yi-Ling Liu.
- Opinion: I Ran the N.S.A. This Is How to Defeat China’s Hacker Army — Beijing has hacked America, but we have all the tools we need to fight back. By Timothy D. Haugh.
Caixin
- China Seeks Stronger Policies for Local Government Debt Cleanup — China’s cabinet called for stronger policy support to help local governments complete off-balance-sheet debt cleanup before a mid-2027 deadline, as Beijing seeks to contain local debt risks.
- China Issues Guidelines to Standardize AI Agent Development — China’s cyberspace, economic planning and industry regulators have jointly issued guidelines to standardize the development and application of artificial intelligence agents.
- China Auto Sales Plunge as Domestic Demand Weakens — China’s domestic auto sales fell sharply again in April, extending a slump that has gripped the market since the start of the year.
- Former Top Chinese Anti-Graft Official Indicted on Bribery Charges — Nearly seven months after Chinese authorities announced that Xu Chuanzhi was under investigation, the former top discipline official has been indicted on two bribery-related charges.
- Opinion: Trump Returns to a China That Has Outgrown America’s Shadow — China now manages Trump’s volatility with tools, not emotion. By Xu Heqian.
South China Morning Post
- Trump’s China visit opens door to ‘casual’ networking between business chiefs —Sources say Beijing’s exclusive Capital Club has been reserved for networking opportunities in a ‘less formal’ setting during state visit.
- China’s Hengrui seals U.S.$15.2 billion deal with U.S. pharmaceutical giant BMS —Company’s shares jump in Hong Kong and Shenzhen after tie-up that bolsters China’s growing drug innovation profile.
- China’s ‘dark factory’ more than doubles production efficiency for J-20 jets — The plant producing fifth-generation warplanes is designed to operate with little to no human involvement.
- Acclaimed biologist Xu Xianzhong returns to China after arrests in his U.S. lab —Multiple investigations into Chinese researchers at the University of Michigan in recent months involved members of Xu’s laboratory.
- U.S. trial hears witness claims of harassment over Chinese ‘secret police station’ — Witness testifies he was harassed after holding a protest against the establishment of alleged Fuzhou-controlled facility in New York.
Nikkei Asia
- Chinese rare-earth miners bullish ahead of Trump-Xi summit — Earnings rise on higher prices as importers face battle to curb China dominance.
- Honda and Toyota see sharp Chinese sales drops as competition heats up — Higher gasoline prices depress sales of gas-powered vehicles.
- Opinion: Trump and Xi need to master a new art of the deal — Frequent but substance-light summits can prevent US-China rivalry from veering out of control. By Minxin Pei.
Bloomberg
- Boeing Bets Its Comeback on Trump, China and an Elusive New Plane — CEO Kelly Ortberg must soon decide how to replace the 737 — and restore public trust.
- China Earns $500 Million an Hour From Exports Supercharged by AI — Chinese shipments abroad climbed 14% from a year ago to a monthly record of $359 billion, with chip exports surging 100% and sales of data processing equipment jumping 47%.
- Trump Vows to Discuss Case of Imprisoned Jimmy Lai With Xi — U.S. President Donald Trump reiterated that he would raise the case of imprisoned Hong Kong businessman Jimmy Lai when he meets Chinese leader Xi Jinping at their summit this week.
Reuters
- Investors say they want Trump and Xi to stay out of AI’s way — The shift in market focus reflects the diminished brinkmanship in the U.S.-China relationship since Trump and President Xi Jinping pressed pause on their trade war six months ago.
Other Publications
- The Guardian: Seven-day weeks and ‘debt bondage’: China’s first electric car plant in Europe mired in allegations of worker abuse — The BYD factory being built in Szeged, Hungary, is facing scrutiny after reports of EU labour laws being violated among the Chinese migrant workforce.
- Foreign Affairs: China Is Squandering a Golden Opportunity — Why Beijing has failed to exploit Trump’s missteps.
- Foreign Policy: China’s Malacca Dilemma, After Hormuz — Western-dominated insurance premiums can choke off Beijing’s oil supplies more effectively than warships can.
- Rest of World: Taiwan’s chips power the global economy. China holds the leverage— Big Tech’s reliance on TSMC makes the China-Taiwan dispute the world’s most dangerous geopolitical flashpoint, says writer Eyck Freymann.
- The Economist: China wants more robots but not fewer workers — A human-first approach to automation.
