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 Stimulus Spurs Cautious Growth Upgrades at Global Banks as Trade Risks Loom — Robust economic data for the start of the year suggest that the shift to more muscular stimulus that began last fall is paying off.
- The U.S. Missile Launcher That Is Enraging China — Land-based Typhon Weapons System is capable of targeting major military-command and industrial centers in mainland China.
- Trump Takes Tough New Approach to Choking Off China’s Access to U.S. Tech — Dozens of entities added to trade blacklist as Silicon Valley frets it will lose business from Washington’s curbs.
The Financial Times
- Nvidia’s China sales face threat from Beijing’s environmental curbs — U.S. chipmaker could suffer $17bn-a-year hit to business if energy efficiency rules are enforced more strictly.
- U.S. adds dozens of Chinese entities to export blacklist — Move marks Trump administration’s first attempt to stifle Beijing’s development of military-related technology.
- Italy’s Pirelli pushes Chinese owner to cut stake amid fears of Trump freeze-out — Management will demand Sinochem reduce its stake in tyremaker at board meeting on Wednesday.
- PwC delays payouts for departing partners in Hong Kong and China — Recent retirees left waiting for equity repayment as Big Four firm grapples with audit ban after Evergrande collapse.
- U.S. strategic ambiguity on Taiwan won’t work any longer — Washington must be clear with Beijing about the consequences of an assault on Taipei. By Michael Schiffer.
The New York Times
- U.S. Adds Export Restrictions to More Chinese Tech Firms Over Security Concerns — The additions included companies that are customers of Intel and Nvidia, and one firm that was the focus of a New York Times investigation last year.
- Opinion: What I’m Hearing in China This Week About Our Shared Future — We need the two superpowers to get serious about devising a regulatory and technological framework that keeps A.I. under human control. By Thomas L. Friedman.
Caixin
- Tesla’s Full Self-Driving Trial in China Delayed by Regulatory Checks — Tesla’s FSD system still awaits regulatory approval in China after stricter rules imposed.
South China Morning Post
- Why a rising AI star left a promising U.S. academic career to return to China — Fu Tianfan leaves tenure-track assistant professor position in New York state for new research opportunities, and Nanjing University’s ‘fertile ground.’
- Why Trump’s Venezuela tariff move presents a dilemma for China — Beijing may have to choose between giving up on its closest ally in the Americas or being hit with additional U.S. tariffs, analysts said.
- Apple’s Cook meets top Chinese officials in charm offensive but offers no AI update — Cook was among 80 company executives who attended the China Development Forum, an annual event to facilitate dialogue with global investors.
- Why China is betting on birth subsidies to solve its population crisis — China is betting big on birth subsidies to stave off a demographic crisis. But do cash payments really work?
Nikkei Asia
- China’s DeepSeek updates V3 model in challenge to OpenAI’s GPT-4.5 — Version improves on predecessor and outperforms U.S. rival in some tasks.
- China demand slump hits earnings at top consumer goods companies — Food, household goods makers looking for overseas growth face price-dumping claims.
Bloomberg
- Putin Gets a Soft Power Win From China’s Russian Grocery Craze — Stores selling Russian products have spread across China, and now Moscow is seizing on the interest with a plan for a major expansion of its own.
- CK Hutchison Said to Proceed With Port Deal Amid China Ire — Both the agreement over the Panama ports and the wider transaction of 41 other CK Hutchison ports are progressing.
- China Floods the World With AI Models After DeepSeek’s Success — Chinese companies have in the past two weeks rolled out no fewer than 10 major product updates or releases.
- Envoy Warns Canada Against Using China as ‘Bargaining Chip’ With U.S. — Recently, Canada has adopted a more hawkish view on investment and trade with China.
- Xi Tests U.S. Allies in Indo-Pacific as Trump Focuses Elsewhere — China’s steps amount to a broader campaign to warn countries against siding with the U.S. on Beijing’s red-line issues.
Reuters
- Exclusive: Secretive Chinese network tries to lure fired federal workers, research shows — Experts said the network appeared to be a prime example of how foreign-linked entities are trying to gather intelligence from government staff fired or forced into retirement.
- BYD aims to double overseas sales to 800,000 in 2025, chairman tells analysts — BYD plans to keep its cost advantage by purchasing key components from China and assembling the vehicles in local markets.
- China poses biggest military, cyber threat to U.S., intel chiefs say — China has the ability to hit the United States with conventional weapons; compromise U.S. infrastructure through cyber attacks; and target its assets in space, the annual intelligence report said.
Other Publications
- The Economist: Europe will have to zip its lip over China’s abuses — In a fracturing world, trade and cooperation will come first.
- The Economist: Chinese hacking is becoming bigger, better and stealthier — Experts say it is the main shift in the cyber-threat landscape in a decade.
- The Atlantic: Fleeing Hong Kong Wasn’t Enough — China’s war on dissidents comes to the United Kingdom.
- The Washington Post: This Chinese city grew its birthrate. It won’t be easy to copy. — With a plummeting birth rate and a rapidly aging population, China faces a demographic crisis. The city of Tianmen is an outlier — at least temporarily.
- Rest of World: Xiaohongshu’s global pivot: The surprise winner of the TikTok ban wants to keep its new users — The China platform faces political risks and e-commerce challenges in its overseas push ahead of a possible IPO.
- ProPublica: How Elon Musk’s SpaceX Secretly Allows Investment From China — SpaceX allows investors from China to buy stakes in the company as long as the funds are routed through the Cayman Islands or other offshore secrecy hubs.
- MIT Technology Review: China built hundreds of AI data centers to catch the AI boom. Now many stand unused. — The country poured billions into AI infrastructure, but the data center gold rush is unraveling as speculative investments collide with weak demand and DeepSeek shifts AI trends.
- CSIS: Murky Waters: Navigating the Risks of China’s Dual-Use Shipyards — China is poised to cement its chokehold on the shipbuilding industry, with new order books indicating that it will grab even greater market share in the years to come.
