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
- Porsche to Cut 5,000 More Jobs After Sales Collapse in China — Move is part of new CEO’s efforts to revive the fortunes of the storied automaker.
- Mercedes-Benz Cuts Sales Guidance Amid Worsening Chinese Market — China car sales plunged 30%, offsetting growth in all other regions.
The Financial Times
- Mercedes-Benz cuts annual forecast amid China slump — German carmaker joins Volkswagen and BMW in warning on tougher Chinese market.
- CXMT’s blockbuster IPO delivers windfall for its home city — Funds run by local government in Hefei make gains of 5,000% from chipmaker’s blockbuster listing.
- Funding gaps hobble western critical mineral objectives, says report — Government-backed financing needed to entice private investment to break China’s grip on production.
- Opinion: China needs a new growth model — This matters for Beijing’s sake and for the rest of the world economy. By Eswar Prasad.
The New York Times
- He Helped China Repress Uyghurs. He Says He’s a Victim, Too. — After nearly 10 years carrying out Chinese government repression in Xinjiang, a former police officer is now seeking asylum in Germany.
- Even China’s A.I. Powerhouses Can’t Figure Out How to Profit Off A.I. — Chinese A.I. models are gaining ground. But the companies behind them do not have a clear strategy to make money from that success.
- Chinese Start-Up Moonshot Details New A.I. Model — Moonshot said some users would have to get licenses to use its Kimi K3 model as the company threads a needle between sharing and profiting from its technologies’ popularity.
Caixin
- Hunan Anti-Graft Probe Reaches Second University of South China President — The sitting president of the University of South China has been placed under investigation for suspected corruption.
- TikTok Faces New EU Penalty Threat Over Children’s Safety — TikTok failed to adequately protect minors from strangers, cyberbullying and potential predators, European Union regulators said.
- Japanese Military Officer Indicted Over Armed Break-In at Chinese Embassy — Japanese prosecutors on Monday local time indicted an active-duty military officer who broke into the Chinese Embassy in Tokyo armed with a knife.
- China Likely to Forgo Major Stimulus as Growth Target Remains in Reach — China’s top leadership is expected to hold off on major new stimulus at a key Politburo meeting in late July.
South China Morning Post
- CATL, BYD battle for supremacy in Middle East energy-storage market — BYD, Sungrow win contracts for storage at massive UAE solar plant, as EV battery makers seek better margins selling storage systems.
- Brazil turns to China trade deal after Trump’s tariffs, as years of resistance end — Xi and Lula agree to fast track Mercosur trade talks, endorsing a deal Brasilia fought to bury when Uruguay first proposed it.
- What CXMT must do to grow global memory market share and build on its surge: analysts — Company’s wafer expansion and AI demand could lift its DRAM share and more than double the stock’s value, analysts say.
- US congressional group plans annual visits to China after trade trip — The fact-finding mission by members of a congressional advisory body to Beijing, Shanghai and Hangzhou was the first of its kind since 2019.
Nikkei Asia
- Labubu takes Manhattan: Chinese brands target inflation-hit US — Pop Mart readies NYC flagship store while Luckin moves into former Starbucks shops.
- China rejects ‘overcapacity’ claims in sweeping rebuttal against US, EU — Commerce ministry seeks to rebrand ‘China Shock 2.0’ as innovation opportunity.
- China’s Unitree Robotics eyes capacity boost to meet humanoid demand — Senior executive sees Japan as potential engineering hub.
- Opinion: Taiwan’s pivot away from China offers a lesson for democracies — Tsai Ing-wen’s trade shift reduced Beijing’s leverage and made Taiwan indispensable to the US. By Chris Horton.
Bloomberg
- Germany Maps China’s Weaknesses in Preparation for a Trade War — German officials are informally mapping China’s weaknesses by analyzing trade flows, supply chains and company-level data.
- Nvidia Staff Detained by Taiwan in China Chip Smuggling Case — The employee was detained on allegations of forgery and breach of trust after local investigators searched the employee’s home and Nvidia’s Taipei office.
- Chinese Luxury Jeweler Sheds $2.1 Billion on 66% Growth Outlook — Laopu Gold Co. lost $2.1 billion in market value after flagging slowing sales, unsettling investors who had been betting on some of China’s most viral consumer brands.
Reuters
- Asian chip stocks slide as China competition fears rattle AI trade — Asian semiconductor stocks tumbled on Tuesday, with South Korea leading the regional selloff.
- China starts production of home-grown immersion DUV chipmaking tools — China has begun mass producing domestically developed immersion deep-ultraviolet (DUV) lithography machines, a technology crucial to advanced chipmaking, a person familiar with the matter said.
- High-tech manufacturing hubs pull ahead in China’s uneven growth — China’s regional growth data underscored the uneven nature of the country’s economic transition.
Other Publications
- The Washington Post: In China, sober-curious young people challenge a tradition of heavy drinking — Alcohol has been a fixture of professional and social life in China for decades, but a new generation is resisting pressure to drink excessively.
- AP: US looks to boost anti-China spending worldwide by hundreds of millions, documents say — The Trump administration is preparing to ramp up funding by hundreds of millions of dollars for programs designed to counter China’s growing influence around the world, after it had put a halt to many of those initiatives last year.
- The Guardian: Opinion: Britain promised to protect Hongkongers from China. Why does it now seem ready to sacrifice them? — Activists under threat from Beijing are facing strange difficulties with UK immigration. Their safety must not be traded for warmer relations with China. By Nathan Law.
