News Briefing for Wednesday, August 24, 2022

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

Huawei boss tells staff to prepare for global recession: Rén Zhèngfēi 任正非, the founder of the Chinese telecom giant, said in what appears to be a leaked internal memo that the company will shift its strategy from pursuing growth to ensuring profit and cash flow, financial news outlet Yicai reported.

• Ren intended to “send a chill to everyone,” and repeatedly warned of a coming recession and that Huawei’s survival is on the line for the next two years, per Pekinglogy, which has an English translation of the memo:

  We should see the difficulties faced by the company and the difficulties ahead. The next ten years [are likely to] be a very painful historical period. The global economy will continue to decline. Now, due to the impact of the war and the continued blockade and suppression by the United States, the world’s economy is unlikely to improve in the next three to five years. With the impact of COVID-19, there [is unlikely to] be a single region in the world that is a bright spot. Then the consumption capacity will be greatly reduced, exerting pressure on us (Huawei) not only on the supply side but also on the market side.

Foreign students may soon return to China: Beijing has eased its tight restrictions on visas for the first time in more than two years, after all but ceasing to issue them after the initial outbreak of COVID-19.

• Foreign nationals holding a valid Chinese residence permit for study or an APEC business travel card will be allowed to enter China starting on Wednesday, China’s U.S. embassy said on WeChat on Tuesday.
• Similar statements were made by China’s embassies in Japan and India.

No gas guzzlers in Hainan: The tropical island province will become China’s first region to ban sales of gasoline- and diesel-powered cars in a bid to cut down carbon emissions.

Anta just does it: Sportswear manufacturer Anta Sports has reported revenue of 25.96 billion yuan ($3.79 billion) for the first half of the year, an increase of 13.8% year-on-year. Although Anta’s net profit decreased by 6.6% to 3.6 billion yuan ($525.74 million), its revenue for the first time surpassed that of Nike in China of $3.7 billion. For details, click through to today’s business briefs, where you can also find more on:

• Battery giant CATL’s extremely healthy revenue and profit numbers for the first half of the year.
• The first positive box office news this year.

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