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
- Hot Mic in Beijing Captures Leaders’ Drive for Longevity — Xi, Putin and Kim — securely positioned heads of state — enjoy a chat about immortality.
- Chinese Stocks Pull Back After Red-Hot Rally — Nasdaq-like ChiNext Index shed 4.25% in its biggest one-day loss since April.
- Opinion: China’s Military Parade Was a Message — Trump saw Xi warmly welcome Putin and Kim. What’s his response? By The Editorial Board.
The Financial Times
- Putin tells Xi organ transplants could offer immortality — Chinese premier noted predictions that humans could live to 150 in this century.
- From outcast to ally: Kim Jong Un takes his place beside Xi and Putin — North Korean leader thwarts ‘perpetual underestimation’ by turning adversaries into partners.
- Novartis strikes deal worth up to $5.2bn for Chinese cardio drug rights — Argo Biopharma collaboration adds to record total this year spent by big pharma on treatments from Chinese companies.
- Chinese stocks slide the most in five months — Drop comes after Xi Jinping’s landmark military parade in Beijing.
- Car sector calls for EU to copy China and include hybrids in emissions push — Executives also warn Brussels that sticking to 2035 petrol engine ban would severely harm bloc’s largest sector.
- China steps in to tame animal spirits as solar sector racks up billions in losses — Officials try to strike balance between cracking down on price wars and encouraging innovation.
- Opinion: China’s new world order — Global governance needs reform but Beijing is not the one to lead it. By The Editorial Board.
The New York Times
- Trump Grows Frustrated With Putin, as Russian President Bonds With China’s Leader — President Trump’s extraordinary summit with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia last month has yet to yield any concrete results on the war in Ukraine.
- In a ‘Hot Mic’ Moment, Xi and Putin Muse About Immortality and Organ Transplants — Medical advances and geopolitics collide for two septuagenarian leaders who have suggested that their time in office is far from over.
- In Tariff Standoff With Trump, China Boycotts American Soybeans — U.S. farmers need to sell their incoming crop, and China needs to buy it in case its main alternative, Brazil, has a flood or drought. But their trade war prevents a deal.
- As Starbucks Slumps, a Chinese Coffee Giant Sees an Opening in New York — Luckin Coffee, a dominant chain from China, arrived in the city in June vowing to inject “new vitality” into American coffee culture.
- ‘Unrestrained’ Chinese Cyberattackers May Have Stolen Data From Almost Every American — Information collected during the yearslong Salt Typhoon attack could allow Beijing’s intelligence services to track targets from the United States and dozens of other countries.
Caixin
- Jack Ma-Backed Yunfeng Dives Into Crypto With $44 Million Ether Purchase — Yunfeng Financial buys $44 million in Ether, joining wave of companies treating crypto as a treasury asset.
- Chinese Firms Shift Gears in Vietnam — From Factory Floors to Storefronts — Chinese companies are trading low-cost exports for local trust, tailoring strategies to win over Vietnam’s growing middle class.
- Hong Kong Property Deals Hit Four-Year High on Hopes of Rate Cuts and Buyer Incentives — Lower stamp duty, rising rents and buoyant markets fuel sales surge as Fed rate cut bets grow.
South China Morning Post
- China’s EV makers face uphill task to meet 2025 break-even target — From Nio to Xpeng and Zeekr, China’s EV start-ups have been reporting smaller second-quarter losses as discounts lured more buyers to battery-driven cars.
- China eyes honing its bond issuance mechanism to boost yuan’s global role — Beijing aims to increase the use of its currency overseas as trading in U.S. dollar assets becomes increasingly volatile.
- China advances in AI agentic tools as Tencent, ByteDance weigh in — Tencent is the latest to join the fray after the Shenzhen-based company open-sourced its new Youtu-Agent agentic framework on Tuesday.
Nikkei Asia
- China’s EV frenzy powers boom for Japan’s machine tool makers — BYD moves mold-making in-house, boosting machinery orders.
- Kim Jong Un turns Beijing military parade into a diplomatic victory — North Korean given equal billing alongside Vladimir Putin, who disappointed Kim 4 months ago.
- Japan warns expats in China over actions that risk spying arrests — Japanese Embassy has been briefing businesspeople, according to foreign ministry source.
- U.S. cotton exports to China drop 90% as apparel making moves to Vietnam — Tariff uncertainty pushes companies to South, Southeast Asia; Beijing turns to Brazil.
- China sends warning to U.S. with display of land-sea-air nuclear ‘triad’ — Missiles paraded through Beijing called ‘trump card for safeguarding sovereignty.’
Bloomberg
- China Hits U.S. Optical-Fiber Imports With Anti-Dumping Tariffs — The move comes swift on the heels of a fresh Trump administration initiative to curb China’s chipmaking capacity.
- TikTok Rival RedNote Hits $31 Billion Valuation in Three Months — The valuation underscored the intense investor demand for a Chinese equivalent to Instagram.
- China’s Tourism Surge May Net $42 Billion for Economy This Year — While a boost from the government’s subsidies for consumer goods is fizzling out, households are proving far more willing to shell out on services like tourism.
- Bridgewater Funds Surge in China, Luring Billions and a Waitlist — Demand is so strong that customers can only buy Bridgewater funds worth a tiny fraction of their bank assets, and sometimes get shut out entirely.
- China’s DeepSeek Preps AI Agent for End-2025 to Rival OpenAI — DeepSeek joins a broader industry movement to create true AI agents, considered the next stage of evolution in artificial intelligence.
Reuters
- China’s war technology on parade — Sea drones, laser weapons and more were unveiled in China’s most advanced display of military weaponry yet. See how it stacks up against 2015 and 2019.
- China uses yuan as olive branch in U.S. trade talks — The appreciation appears to be a deliberate policy choice by Beijing.
- Chinese firms still want Nvidia chips despite government pressure not to buy, sources say — Demand for Nvidia chips remains strong in China due to constrained supplies of products from domestic rivals such as Huawei and Cambricon.
- China’s carmakers are heading for a crash — The ostensible problem is a vicious price war that has lasted more than two years.
- China’s BYD cuts sales target, sources say, as white hot growth cools — The latest target is below several recently lowered forecasts from analysts.
Other Publications
- CSIS: China Showcases Global Ambitions at Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit — China envisions a post-war order in which it increasingly displaces its wartime allies on the world stage.
- MIT Technology Review: How Trump is helping China extend its massive lead in clean energy — China is set to extend an already massive lead.
- ChinaFile: China’s Vulnerability Paradox — While the country clearly exhibits strengths as a commodity superpower, it also suffers from important vulnerabilities.
