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
- China’s Auto Market Remains Under Pressure on Sluggish Domestic Demand — Retail sales of passenger cars in the country slumped 20.2% in the first half.
- China Says It Has Found Security Vulnerabilities in Anthropic’s Claude Code — China said several versions of Anthropic’s popular Claude Code “can send sensitive information such as user location and identity to remote servers without the user’s consent due to a built-in monitoring mechanism.”
- Sino Biopharm Strikes Drug Licensing Deal With AstraZeneca, Deepens GSK Partnership — The tie-ups come amid a wave of licensing agreements between global biopharmaceutical companies and Chinese drugmakers.
The Financial Times
- Outspoken Chinese economist who doubted official GDP data dies — Gao Shanwen lauded by online commenters as ‘truth teller’ in country known for strict censorship.
- Apple interest thrusts China’s CXMT into memory chip spotlight — Sharp turnaround for state-backed company central to Beijing’s AI supply chain efforts.
- Santander axes top China banker and scraps perks in Asia overhaul — Spanish lender shifting focus of regional corporate and investment banking operations to south-east Asia.
- Opinion: China needs another Zhu Rongji to cut industrial excess — Manufacturing glut has revived memories of sweeping reforms under a charismatic reformist premier. By Edward White.
The New York Times
- Why Australia Is Locked in a ‘Permanent Contest’ With China in the Pacific — With a series of recent treaties and alliances, Canberra is seeking to prevent Beijing from establishing a military foothold in the Pacific Ocean.
- Opinion: The American Economy Isn’t as Bad as You Might Think — Influencers may be “Chinamaxxing,” but the U.S. is still the world’s economic powerhouse. By Natasha Sarin and Dan Wang.
Caixin
- Chinese Lenders Chase Commercial-Space Boom — Chinese commercial lenders are stepping up credit support for the country’s booming commercial space sector following the launch of 20 satellites on a single rocket.
South China Morning Post
- What does China’s submarine missile test mean for its nuclear triad expansion? — More than a technical milestone, undersea launch sends strategic signal to the U.S. and Beijing’s neighbours in Asia-Pacific, analysts say.
- Indian ambassador to China urges deeper economic ties, touts AIIB as model — New envoy also advocates for multilateral cooperation as global economy faces challenges ranging from tariffs to export controls.
- Opinion: Are the U.S.’ AI models better than China’s? That may be beside the point — Rather than fight U.S. frontier AI control, China is thinning the margins of premium AI with cheap-enough, good-enough models for mass adoption. By Jeffery Wu.
Nikkei Asia
- Why CPUs are now at the center of the AI race — U.S. chipmakers lead, but China players aim to increase local market share.
- Assault on Japan journalist may have link to China unity law: Taiwan VP — Critic of Beijing punched in face after giving speech on island; Hong Kong man arrested.
- Taiwan’s top shipbuilder bets on defense drive amid China’s power play — CSBC chairman says first homegrown sub ready soon, urges legislature to back drones.
Bloomberg
- China Cites Trump Remarks in Rare Criticism of U.S. Taiwan Envoy — Chen Binhua, a spokesperson for China’s office that oversees Taiwan affairs, accused Raymond Greene of intervening in Taiwan’s domestic politics and contradicting Trump’s stance.
Reuters
- China becomes legacy automakers’ innovation engine — Global automakers used China as a low-cost manufacturing base to churn out cars developed at HQ. Now, GM, Volkswagen and Renault are handing development to Chinese engineers.
Other Publications
- The Atlantic: China Is Abusing AI — Chatbots are deftly disseminating Beijing’s talking points.
- The Atlantic: China’s Answer to AI Sticker Shock — Corporate America is starting to balk at the cost of AI agents. A cheap alternative from China looks more tempting than ever.
- Foreign Policy: Taiwan Believes Japan Will Help Defend Against China — Opinion polling shows that trust in Tokyo is surprisingly deep.
- The Economist: China’s semiconductor industry is racing to catch the West’s — But it is proving easier to design chips than to make them.
- CSIS: China’s SLBM Test Underscores the Importance of a Ballistic Missile Launch Notification Agreement — There are likely several different political drivers for this particular test, as well as China’s desire to validate the capability of its military hardware.
- The Guardian: Plenty of players but no grassroots: can China ever grow into a footballing giant? — Some of its amateur matches pull in bigger crowds than European leagues but are more of a spectacle than a pathway to the professional game, say experts.
