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
- Deadly Factory Fire Highlights Dangers of China’s Manufacturing Might — The blaze, which killed 28 people, comes shortly after similar incidents at a coal mine and another at a fireworks factory.
- U.S. Biotechs Are Keeping More Secrets to Beat Copycats in China — Western biotechs are getting a new playbook with tighter controls to stay ahead of an ultraefficient pharmaceutical pipeline overseas.
The Financial Times
- China claims rocket first as it catches booster in floating sea net — State media hails successful test in step towards reusable rocket technology for space flights.
- China drops urban employment target as economic pressures build — Latest five-year plan omits figure for jobs growth, a fixture of economic planning, for first time in decades.
- OpenAI and Google sell AI models to blacklisted China groups — U.S. groups have been supplying AI services to Singapore-based subsidiaries of Alibaba, Baidu, Tencent.
- Ships on Taiwan maritime blacklist also have North Korea smuggling ties — Criminal or smuggling networks may be mobilised against the country, not just state agencies.
- Tencent leads deal to unwind Manus acquisition — Chinese tech group set to become largest shareholder in AI agent start-up after Beijing ordered reversal of U.S. takeover.
The New York Times
- With a Successful Rocket Launch, China Clears a Key Hurdle in Race With SpaceX — The launch and recovery of the Long March 10B could represent a long-awaited breakthrough for Chinese satellite companies.
- Nobel-Winning U.S. Chemist Will Move to China to Lead A.I. Institute — Omar Yaghi of the University of California, Berkeley, will head an initiative to apply artificial intelligence to the discovery of new materials.
- Volkswagen to Slash Half Its Models as Sales Fall — The German automaker has struggled to compete with fast-growing Chinese companies that offer more affordable and sophisticated electric vehicles.
- China, Russia and Others Seek to Inflame Debate Over A.I. Data Centers — State actors in China, Russia and Iran have sought to exploit the U.S. public debate over the effects of the technology.
- In Deep Space, China Meets Earth’s ‘Amazing’ Quasi-Moon — A Chinese spacecraft has captured the first image of the asteroid Kamo‘oalewa.
Caixin
- China Adds Semaglutide, Cancer Drugs to Essential Medicines List After Eight-Year Gap — First update in eight years brings innovative therapies into a state-backed catalog that shapes hospital purchasing and patient access.
- China’s Gig Worker Healthcare Enrollment Slows Under Weight of High Premiums — Despite a national health coverage rate above 95%, an estimated 60% of the country’s flexible workforce remains outside the comprehensive employee insurance scheme.
- How Mercedes, BMW and Audi Hope to Win Back China — The Chinese market’s embrace of smart electric vehicles (EVs) over the last few years caught the German giants off guard, creating an opening for their homegrown competitors.
- China Tech Giants Battle to Build the Ultimate AI Concierge — WeChat’s long-awaited artificial intelligence agent has arrived with little fanfare but sweeping implications for China’s consumer internet.
- China’s Hospitals Are Turning Patient Data Into a Cash Cow — Patient files, lab results and medical scans used to sit dormant in hospital archives once a treatment was concluded. Now, they are being mined amid a digital gold rush.
South China Morning Post
- AI, science and the risks in China’s reliance on imported precision equipment — The country is dependent on overseas high-end scientific instruments, crimping use of artificial intelligence, researcher says.
- How Europe’s rush for Chinese air conditioners exposes the gap in Brussels’ trade policy — As a record heatwave drives Europeans to snap up imported cooling units, Brussels’ rhetoric clashes with consumer reality.
- The radar system that Taiwan says tracked the PLA’s ballistic missile launch — The Pave Paws early-warning unit detected the launch from waters near the mainland’s southern coast, report says.
Nikkei Asia
- Beijing and Tokyo can learn from China’s ‘Hong Kong of the north’ — Markets, not government direction, offer the best path to sustained economic growth.
Bloomberg
- Secretive China Chipmaker Is Built to Dodge U.S. Curbs — Founded by a U.S.-trained entrepreneur, CXMT is racing to catch its rivals and using a largely domestic supplier network to shield itself from Washington.
- China Omits Job Goal for First Time in Decades as AI Spreads — China dropped a target for urban job creation over the next five years for the first time in decades, in an apparent nod to rising uncertainty over employment as AI spreads through the economy.
- MiniMax Joins China AI Fundraising Rush With $2 Billion Deal — MiniMax is joining a rush by Chinese tech firms to tap markets for funding aimed at the AI buildout, looking to raise as much as $2 billion from selling new shares and convertible bonds.
Reuters
- Missile test showcases sensitive Chinese submarine capabilities key to nuclear deterrent — China’s submarine-fired ballistic missile test into the southern Pacific on Monday gave its military leadership an opportunity to examine some of the most complex and sensitive operations of its evolving nuclear deterrent, analysts and diplomats say.
Other Publications
- Foreign Policy: Why We Know More About China’s Next-Generation Fighters Than America’s — As internet sleuthing replaces traditional intelligence collection, one big mystery about the PLA remains.
- Brookings: A new risk framework for Chinese technology products and investments — The United States needs a calibrated approach that targets specific risks while preserving benefits to the United States where possible.
