German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is planning a trip to China
News Briefing for Tuesday, October 11, 2022
Here’s what else you need to know about China today:
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is planning a trip to China for November 3–4, his first visit to the nation as German leader since taking office last December. He’ll also be the first G7 leader to visit China since the start of the COVID pandemic.
Decoupling with China was “not an option” for EU firms, the bloc’s trade commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis said per Reuters: “The EU should continue engaging with China with pragmatism and without naivety. Our trading relationship needs more balance and reciprocity.”
- On the other hand, in a speech critical of Beijing, Jeremy Fleming, the chief of Britain’s cyber-intelligence agency, said that Beijing’s aggressive stance seeks to “shape the global tech ecosystem.”
The chip wars are heating up after the U.S. announced new restrictions on semiconductor exports to China, a move intended to “kneecap” the Asian giant’s push to develop cutting-edge technologies.
- In order to comply with the new rules, KLA Corp, a U.S.-based chips manufacturing company, will stop offering some of its services to China-based customers, including South Korea’s SK Hynix, which has factories in the cities of Wuxi and Chongqing, and plans for a fab in Dalian.
- Meanwhile, China’s top EV makers, including NIO, XPeng, and Li Auto, are all moving to make their own chips.
- Read more about the U.S. chip curbs to China today from the Wall Street Journal and Foreign Policy, or see this commentary by Paul Triolo and Kendra Schaefer published last week on The China Project.
The U.S. government has removed Wuxi Biologics, a leading Chinese pharmaceutical contract manufacturer, “from a list of entities that U.S.-based firms need to jump through extra hoops to trade with.” Wuxi Biologics makes ingredients that go into AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine.
CATL, China’s leading battery producer, has announced that it expects to report net profit for the first three quarters of up to 18 billion yuan ($2.52 billion), an increase of 132% year-on-year. See today’s Business briefs from the Chinese media, with more links and info on:
- A secondary listing in Hong Kong for BOSS Zhipin.
- A new push for rural infrastructure.
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