Can anything stop ‘Gray rhino’ HNA’s overseas spending spree?

Faced with falling bond prices and unwillingness by foreign banks to do business with it, HNA this week sought to offer reassurances that it is “among the best-quality client of banks” after speaking to eight Chinese lenders about extending its credit, the New York Times reports (paywall). The big-spending conglomerate, one of China’s “gray rhinos,” plans to complete $3 billion worth of pending deals this year, for a total spend of $12 billion, even though it faces pressure from Beijing to curb wasteful activity and growing scrutiny of its deals from overseas regulators.

EARLIER THIS WEEK:

• Roadblocks for foreign self-driving cars

Overseas automakers expressed worries that Beijing is using concerns about national security to hinder their work on autonomous driving technology in China, where they already face significant restrictions that require them to work with a limited number of local partners who are licensed to engage in high-definition mapping.

• Google ‘tiptoes’ back into China

The U.S. internet giant announced that it is opening an artificial intelligence research center in Beijing. And although the company famously shut down its mainland China search engine in 2010 amid concerns over censorship and hacking, it never fully exited the country, as it continued to do business in less sensitive areas such as ad sales.

• Quitting coal ain’t easy: China’s heating crisis

An insufficiently thought-out push to limit coal use has left many across China freezing. In addition to backtracking on some of the restrictions on coal, Beijing ordered a four-month shutdown of chemical plants in western China as a way of ensuring that more supplies of natural gas would be available for heating.

More news from today

• Hong Kong-Macao-Zhuhai bridge
  China’s mega bridge will cost $1.5 billion more than expected / Caixin
• Kindergarten scandal fallout
  Rules tightened for preschools in wake of abuse scandals / Caixin
• Interest rates
  China raises short- and medium-term interest rates after Fed / Reuters
• Aviation industry
  China to develop engines for home-grown c919 passenger jets / Yicai
• Drones
  China’s first medical drone delivers essential supplies to cliff-top village / SCMP
• Entertainment
  Free time in smaller cities behind rapid growth in China’s entertainment market / TechNode
• Booze
  China fiery liquor maker Moutai eyes three IPOs by 2020 / Bloomberg