News briefing for Monday, August 22, 2022

Here’s what else you need to know about China today:

Xí Jìnpíng 习近平 and Putin are set to attend the G20 summit in Bali in November, making a potential meeting between the two world leaders and U.S. President Joe Biden possible, amid tensions in the Taiwan Strait and the war in Ukraine.

• Meanwhile, Xi is preparing for a trip to Central Asia to meet with Vladimir Putin and other leaders at a regional summit in September.

The longest river in Asia is shrinking: Parts of the Yangtze River have dried up to barely half its normal width, as the scorching heat wave in China continues to put pressure on resources and supply chains across the country.

• Shanghai’s iconic skyline, The Bund, will not be lit for two nights to save power, officials said, while authorities in Chongqing have shortened the opening hours of malls starting on Monday.
• Auto giants Tesla and SAIC are seeking help from the Shanghai government to cope with supply chain disruptions after Sichuan Province began rationing power supplies to deal with the severe heat waves.
• The Yangtze’s receding water levels have revealed a trio of ancient Buddhist statues believed to be 600 years old.

Russia was China’s top oil supplier for the third month in a row, according to July data from the Chinese General Administration of Customs, at the expense of imports from rival suppliers such as Angola and Brazil. Purchases of crude, oil products, gas, and coal rose to $35 billion since the war in Ukraine began, compared with about $20 billion a year ago.

The government wants more yacht and cruise ships: The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and three other ministries jointly released a planning document to grow the marine tourism industry. For details, click through to today’s business briefs, where you can also find more on:

• The 29.15 trillion yuan ($4.27 trillion) that Chines einvestores have put into wealth management products (uninsured financial offerings sold by banks and other financial institutions) in China in the first half of the year;
• The increasing consolidation of China’s state-owned companies.

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