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 Exports to U.S. Suffer Biggest Decline Since 2020 — Shipments to the rest of the world jump, but overall export growth slows.
- Taiwan Tries to Purge Its Ranks of China Sympathizers — Government escalates scrutiny of members of the civil service and military for signs of misplaced allegiances.
- Export Controls to Take Center Stage at U.S.-China Trade Talks — Trade war’s focus shifts from tariffs to countries’ curbs on critical products and materials.
- Harvard’s China Ties Become New Front in Battle With Trump — How Republicans linked the university to Uyghur genocide over a 2023 training event.
- China Tariffs Already Mean Fewer, More Expensive Dolls for American Kids — Toy makers are raising prices and are cautious about producing more amid uncertainty over tariff levels.
- Chinese-Owned Company Halts Work on Factory to Make Batteries in U.S. — Automotive Energy Supply Corp. hit pause on the factory amid uncertainty over tariffs, potential loss of subsidies.
- China Is Putting Aside Its Self-Sufficiency Push for American Medicine — Beijing wants to elevate healthcare to the level of wealthy nations by the end of the decade.
- Chinese Student Trolled Over ‘Humanity’ Speech at Harvard — Her remarks drew applause, then her allegiances came under question inside and outside China.
The Financial Times
- Starbucks to cut prices in China — Consumer businesses under pressure from weaker economic backdrop and intense competition.
- China’s exports to US plunge as trade talks loom — Key producer index falls at fastest pace in 2 years despite moves to boost demand.
- Brazil plans panda bond as Lula looks to bolster ties with China — Planned issuance also includes debt in Europe and will test investor appetite amid concerns over government policies.
- US companies push for lower Vietnamese tariffs as China hedge — Businesses argue south-east Asian country has become vital part of ‘China plus one’ strategy.
- US expresses concern over plan for Chinese embassy in London — White House deems Royal Mint site a security risk owing to its proximity to critical communications infrastructure.
- Chinese regulators seek to slow rollout of self-driving features in cars — Beijing under pressure to set world-leading safety and liability standards as carmakers power ahead with technology.
- China arms itself for more export control battles — Beijing’s success in snarling supply chains with rare earths has shifted the balance of power in trade talks.
- China fast tracks rare earth export licences for European companies — Beijing has attempted to improve relations with Brussels since Donald Trump returned to the White House.
- Trump says US-China trade talks to be held in London on June 9 — Announcement follows phone call between American president and Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
- Opinion: K-pop’s global growth depends on fancy geopolitical footwork — Tencent deal could mark the start of a China comeback for South Korea’s music industry. By Lex.
- Opinion: Hong Kong rate slump is a warning light for global markets — The desire to hold Asian currencies reflects a growing nervousness about Trump’s America. By Robin Harding.
The New York Times
- U.S. and China to Meet at Precarious Moment in Trade War — Officials from both sides are set to talk on Monday in London, aiming to resolve differences over tariffs and supply chains that have endangered a fragile truce between the countries.
- Japan Flexes Its Military Muscle at China, and Trump — A highly visible missile base on Okinawa is part of a Japanese defense buildup made amid fears of Beijing’s growing power and questions about U.S. commitment.
- How Russian Spies Are Analyzing Data From China’s WeChat App — Moscow has long been suspicious of foreign messaging apps. WeChat’s weak encryption makes it vulnerable.
- How The Times Obtained Secret Russian Intelligence Documents — A directive from Russia’s domestic security service was part of a cache that was advertised online by a cybercrime group.
- Russian Spies Are Suspicious of China, Even as Putin and Xi Grow Close — Russia’s spy hunters are increasingly worried about China’s espionage, even as the two countries grow closer.
- Even Before Trump’s Visa Clampdown, U.S. Was Losing African Students — African students have traded academic institutions in the West for Chinese alternatives. The Trump administration’s clampdown on international students and visas could accelerate the shift.
- Hong Kong Looks for Ways to Win Back Big-Spending Tourists — A city with an image dented by protests, pandemic restrictions and a security crackdown hopes to broaden its appeal beyond budget-minded visitors from mainland China.
- Buyer With Ties to Chinese Communist Party Got V.I.P. Treatment at Trump Crypto Dinner — The warm welcome for a technology executive whose purchases of the president’s digital coin won him a White House tour illustrates inconsistencies in the administration’s views toward visitors from China.
- U.S. and China to Hold Economic Talks in London — Top American economic officials will meet with their Chinese counterparts next Monday in hopes of breaking a trade stalemate, President Trump said.
- Xi to Trump: Rein in the Hawks Trying to Derail the Tariff Truce — China sought to depict a call between Xi Jinping and President Trump as an appeal from one strongman leader to another to run a tight ship and stay on course.
- Chinese Students Reconsider the U.S. as Republicans Threaten Their Visas — Critics say proposals to restrict or even ban Chinese student visas take a “sledgehammer to a problem that needs highly targeted tools.”
- Trade Brought Them Together. What Happens Now? — Chinese-U.S. trade is not just shipping containers and customs forms. It is underpinned by relationships between entrepreneurs. But now the turmoil over the Trump administration’s tariffs is threatening to fray longstanding personal ties.
Caixin
- Degrees of Uncertainty Make Chinese Students Rethink the Benefits of a U.S. Education — Trump’s visa threats have shattered the ambitions of many Chinese students wanting to study in the U.S.
- Hong Kong Offers Beijing Legal Route to Sell Seized Crypto — The ban on trading virtual currencies on the Chinese mainland has made it impossible for authorities to legally liquidate such assets onshore.
- Opinion: To Truly Protect Data, China Must Win Its War on Doxing — Officials assert that this heightened scrutiny isn’t designed to hobble internet platforms. Rather, they argue, a web free from intimidation and abuse is foundational to the industry’s sustainable health. By Caixin.
South China Morning Post
- China’s sixth-gen fighters: fresh photos hint at cruising capacity and drone control — J-36 features ‘interesting cockpit layout’ and is ‘cooler than most Hollywood advanced aircraft’, analysts say.
- How BYD and Chinese peers are transforming Europe’s small EV market — Volkswagen, Renault and other EU stalwarts prepare a slew of smaller, cheaper EVs to fight an influx of Chinese models.
- Beijing’s 4 core principles held up as route to peace in disputed waters — China and Southeast Asia must keep resolution of maritime issues ‘within their own hands’, Xinhua Institute research report says.
- AI content detector: why does China dismiss it as ‘superstition tech’? — Detection tools can produce false results, Science and Technology Daily warns, citing 100-year-old essay rated as 60 per cent written by AI.
- Opinion: Thanks to Trump, US threat of a ‘peaceful evolution’ recedes for China — His declaration that the US is done intervening could not have come at a better time for Chinese leaders, who have long fretted over Western influence undermining party rule. By Wang Xiangwei.
Nikkei Asia
- China can lead global climate push in US absence, COP29 host says — Azerbaijan negotiator says faster implementation of pledges key for momentum.
- Chinese migrate to Japan for education — Good schools, comfortable life attract wealthy and middle-class families.
- Trump-Xi call offers limited relief as rare-earth worries linger — Chinese stocks subdued; analysts highlight gaps in two sides’ accounts.
Bloomberg
- China Exports to US Fall Most Since 2020 Despite Trade Truce — Chinese exports rose less than expected last month as the worst drop in shipments to the US in more than five years counteracted strong demand from other markets.
- China Consumer Deflation Streak Persists as Price Wars Rage — China’s consumer deflation extended into a fourth month, as price wars intensified while a spending boost during two national holidays failed to offset the drag from weak domestic demand.
- Chinese Managers Take Reins at TikTok Shop in US as Sales Miss Goal — ByteDance Ltd., TikTok’s parent company, has been replacing US-hired staff near Seattle with managers connected to China, aiming to replicate its e-commerce success in Asia after sales fell short in America.
- BYD Unleashes an EV Industry Reckoning That Alarms Beijing — The price war engulfing China’s electric vehicle industry has already sent share prices tumbling and prompted an unusual level of intervention from Beijing. The shakeout may just be getting started.
- Trump’s China Gambit Belies Rocky Road Ahead on Tariff Deals — President Donald Trump has come up short on striking trade deals with most nations with just one month left before his self-imposed tariff deadline, even as he took his first steps in weeks toward engaging with China.
Reuters
- Auto companies fret over rare-earths bottleneck — “The whole car industry is in full panic,” said Eckard, CEO of Magnosphere, based in Troisdorf, Germany. “They are willing to pay any price.”
- US suspends licenses to ship nuclear plant parts to China, sources say — Nuclear equipment suppliers are among a wide range of companies whose sales have been restricted over the past two weeks as the U.S.-China trade war shifted from negotiating tariffs to throttling each other’s supply chains.
- Experts doubt FBI’s claim that crop fungus smuggled by Chinese students is a threat — U.S. federal prosecutors accused two Chinese researchers of smuggling samples of the fungus Fusarium graminearum into the U.S., describing it as a potential agricultural terrorism weapon.
Other Publications
- Foreign Affairs: Tell Me How This Trade War Ends — The Right Way to Build a New Global Economic Order.
- The Washington Post: American students in China face a barrage of questions about Trump — The number of U.S. students in China has plummeted, but those who are there now say it’s more important than ever for Americans to understand the country.
- The Atlantic: How I Accidentally Inspired a Major Chinese Motion Picture — A decade ago, I wrote a story about transcending cultural boundaries through sports. Now it’s a movie with a very different message.
- The New Yorker: The Victims of the Trump Administration’s China-Bashing — A Cold War-era report is a reminder of how long suspicion has trailed people of Chinese descent in the U.S.
- Rest of World: Silicon Valley led the quest for driverless cars. But Chinese robotaxis are catching up fast — Apollo Go challenges pioneer Waymo’s head start and leads country rivals in overseas push.
- The Guardian: US attacks on science and research a ‘great gift’ to China on artificial intelligence, former OpenAI board member says — Influential researcher claims disruption in jobs market from generative AI has already begun and warns of possibility of ‘gradual disempowerment to AI’.
