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
- Inside the Race to Protect Submarine Cables From Sabotage — U.S. and allies turn to tech, patrols and new routes to defend crucial underwater infrastructure against Russia and China.
- China’s Auto Sales Extend Decline in March — Retail sales of passenger cars dropped 15% in March from a year earlier.
- Mercedes-Benz Car Sales Fall on China, Macroeconomic Challenges — However car sales in the U.S. rose 20%.
The Financial Times
- CLSA curtails flagship Tokyo forum because of its Chinese parent — Famed investor gathering becomes ‘access day’ with new event launched in South Korea.
Caixin
- The Equity Bet Behind China’s Insurance Profit Surge — Listed insurers’ strong earnings mask a growing dependence on stocks — now being tested as markets turn volatile.
- Middle East Turmoil Raises China’s Safe Haven Status — While oil shocks and liquidity stress unsettle global assets, steady bond yields and a resilient yuan are helping boost potential of Chinese financial markets.
- Corruption Watchdog Probes Chief of Scandal-Ridden Chinese LED Giant — Sanan Optoelectronics’ controlling family’s stake was also frozen shortly after a separate graft investigation into the company’s founder.
South China Morning Post
- Mining revolution: China’s 500-tonne ‘underground carrier’ tunnels a kilometre to mine ore — Unprecedented boring machine tasked with helping unlock a hidden world of wealth buried beneath the Earth’s crust.
- China’s energy storage tech exports: a buffer against the Iran war oil shock? — Strong overseas demand, fuelled by the rise of AI-powered systems, could continue amid Iran war pressures, analysts say.
- China strengthens oversight of state-owned assets overseas amid global tensions — A new department will guide state-owned enterprises expanding overseas, as China’s firms look outwards for growth opportunities.
- More Chinese banks claw back bonuses, cut salaries despite mixed profit recovery — Some lenders are also deferring bonuses and cutting headcount as they tighten their purse strings.
Nikkei Asia
- What Wen Jiabao’s rare public appearance reveals — Xi Jinping tolerates former premier’s stunt as an olive branch to party elders.
- China’s CSSC sets sail on designing own cruise ships — Leading shipbuilding nation aims to break Europe’s grip on industry.
- China’s Rokid to bring OpenClaw to AI glasses — Startup looks to expand in Japan and Europe as AI agents move to wearables.
Bloomberg
- Chile Uncovers Criminal Networks Shipping Millions of Dollars of Copper to Peru and China — The illicit organizations show both the profitability and sophistication of theft in a country that’s the world’s largest producer of copper.
- China Taps Telecom Executive as Senior Colonel for Reserve Force — The choice highlights Beijing’s continued efforts to integrate civilian technology with its armed forces.
- China Considers Financial Aid for Airlines Hit by Oil Shock — It could be the industry’s biggest lifeline since the Covid pandemic.
Reuters
- Exclusive: Chinese firm hired lobbyists with ties to Don Jr, then scored a win in Washington — A lobbying firm led by one of Donald Trump Jr.’s hunting buddies helped a Chinese company make its case to a U.S. national security watchdog against a U.S. startup that was seeking to have the Chinese firm removed as one of its investors.
- FCC to vote on proposal to ban Chinese labs from testing U.S. electronics — The agency will vote on a proposal to bar all Chinese labs from testing devices such as smartphones, cameras and computers for use in the U.S.
Other Publications
- The Atlantic: China Watches Trump Blink — A blockade of Taiwan would hurt the global economy more than Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.
- POLITICO: National robotics push caught in delayed Trump-Xi meeting — Rising global tensions are slowing a broader U.S. robotics strategy as officials gauge how to confront China.
- Rest of World: War in the Gulf could tilt the cloud race toward China — Strikes on U.S. data centers highlight the risks of concentration and the growing role of geopolitics in cloud competition.
- Foreign Policy: Beijing Is Trying to Break U.S. Narratives Over Taiwan — A key meeting with the Taiwanese opposition signals a different model of cross-strait stability.
- CFR: The U.S. Is Pushing Southeast Asia Toward China. The Iran War Made It Worse. — A new survey of Southeast Asian opinion leaders shows they prefer China to the United States as a partner.
