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 Logs Another Loss Amid Food-Delivery Price War — Meituan remains locked in a battle for supremacy with Alibaba Group and JD.com.
- Will Volkswagen’s Massive ‘Made for China’ Bet Pay Off? — The automaker has spent billions developing cars ‘in China, for China.’ It is about to find out if the Chinese will buy them.
The Financial Times
- Tencent moves closer to launching AI agent for China’s most-used app – Maker of WeChat has fallen behind domestic rivals in artificial intelligence models.
- General Mills sells Häagen-Dazs ice cream stores in China — Transaction is the latest in shift towards local management for well-known foreign brands.
- Opinion: China’s housing market could have further to fall — To make real estate attractive for investors, prices must go lower. By Zhu Ning.
The New York Times
- He Became China’s Largest Critic in Exile. Then the Threats Followed Him. — Li Ying, known as Teacher Li to his 2.2 million followers on X, doesn’t live in China but still faces smear campaigns and death threats. He is not letting that stop him.
Caixin
- Trip.com Plans $2 Billion Marketing Push for China Inbound Travel — Trip.com Group Ltd. plans to invest approximately 15 billion yuan ($2.2 billion) over the next five years in marketing campaigns aimed at bringing more overseas travelers to the Chinese mainland.
- China’s Local Fiscal Recovery Hides Scramble to Plug Budget Holes — Overall fiscal revenue grew 2.4% and all but four regions reported increases.
- Energy Shocks Are Rewriting China’s Export Playbook — Since early 2025, global trade watchers have tracked a stark divergence in China’s export engine.
- China’s Retirement Age Overhaul Triggers Confidence Crisis Among Workers, Study Shows — China’s recent move to push back its statutory retirement age has dealt a widespread psychological blow to public confidence in the state pension fund.
South China Morning Post
- Trump ‘personally called for China’s help’ to end Ukraine war in summit with Xi — Washington is also not happy about Beijing’s rare earth controls, according to people familiar with the talks.
- Food Republic joins wave of foreign brands retreating in China — Singaporean operator leaves capital after 25 years as food court model loses favour amid rise of food delivery, shopping-mall evolution.
- The next tech war? Why biotech may become a new US-China battleground — China’s biotech industry is rapidly moving up the value chain, prompting fears in the US and calls for tighter controls.
- Australian beef will soon be hit by 55% tariff in China, ministry says — China’s imports of Australian beef are about to surpass a quota introduced by Beijing to protect domestic farmers.
Nikkei Asia
- China’s BYD, SAIC Motor eye EVs with all-solid-state batteries in 2027 — Companies leverage market scale, semi-solid technology in quest for dominance.
- Chinese sports brand Li Ning partners with NBA star Steph Curry — Company lands one of the game’s biggest names to help raise its profile abroad.
- Opinion: Trump is turning Taiwan into a bargaining chip — President’s comments point to more transactional era in U.S.-Taiwan relations. By Derek Grossman.
Bloomberg
- With $1 Billion of New Chinese Money, Serb Leader Warns Europe — In an interview in Belgrade, Aleksandar Vucic discusses his deepening ties with Beijing and frustration with the European Union.
- Nvidia’s AI Chips Sought by Chinese Labs With Ties to Military — The universities are pursuing Nvidia chips in a variety of ways, including trying to buy them through third-party brokers and seeking contracts to rent the chips’ computing power.
- China Adds Data and AI to Trade Secret Rules to Block Leaks — China expanded its trade secret rules to include data and algorithms as Beijing steps up efforts to prevent technology leaks.
- China’s Solar Industry Launches Space Alliance With Few Details — A total of 13 founding members, including GCL Technology Holdings Ltd. and Trina Solar Co., inaugurated the Space Energy Development Alliance.
Reuters
- From hiking to hotpot, lonely consumers in China fuel a $7.4 billion companionship economy — Providers, often students or young gig workers, advertise on social media with promises of “emotional value”, conversation and practical help.
- Robot patrol dogs could be coming to Taiwan’s South China Sea islands — The Taiwan military’s top weapons development institute showed off on Tuesday three robot patrol dogs that could one day be used on Taiwan’s islands.
- China owns more than 11,000 German-developed patents, IW study shows — Nearly one in three inventions developed in Germany is owned by a foreign entity.
Other Publications
- BBC: China goes after ‘ghost kitchens’ to rein in cutthroat food delivery apps — The thousands of “ghost kitchens” – online shops that don’t actually exist – have spooked Chinese consumers.
- Semafor: China created the rival it rails against — China and Japan weren’t fated to become 21st century enemies.
- CFR: Time to Stop Forecasting China’s Surplus Away — The IMF, rather consistently, has forecast that China’s surplus will fall over time.
