Welcome to the 94th installment of the Caixin-Sinica Business Brief, a weekly podcast that brings you the most important business stories of the week from China’s top source for business and financial news. Produced by Kaiser Kuo of our Sinica Podcast, it features a business news roundup, plus conversations with Caixin reporters and editors.
This week:
- We discuss how China’s yuan dropped below seven per dollar as the trade war escalated.
- We note that troubled Hengfeng 恒丰 Bank has received official approval for a restructuring plan that involves investments from a provincial government and a unit of China’s sovereign wealth fund.
- We dive into the story of Hu Huaibang 胡怀邦, the former chairman of policy lender China Development Bank, who is under investigation for allegedly using his position to funnel billions of dollars of dodgy credit to fallen energy and financial group CEFC China Energy and prop up the heavily indebted real estate conglomerate HNA Group.
- We analyze Huawei’s new operating system “Harmony,” which marked the Chinese smartphone giant’s latest step toward creating its own software ecosystem.
- We report that several Chinese automakers’ sales of new-energy vehicles hit the skids in July as the industry navigates government subsidy cuts.
- We hear that Foxconn and customer Amazon face renewed criticism from a labor advocacy group for allegedly slashing wages and flouting labor laws at a Chinese factory as pressure from U.S. tariffs mounts.
- We find out that Tesla’s Shanghai facility is on track to officially start production at the end of this year, the company said Wednesday in a message posted to its official Weibo account.
- We chat about mini-programs — bare-bones applications that run instantly on web platforms — which are the new front line as China’s internet giants battle for traffic and corporate business, and the country’s biggest search engine is keen to get in on the act.
In addition, we talk with Tanner Brown, head of real-time news at Caixin, about deadly heat waves in China. We also chat with Doug Young, managing editor of Caixin Global, about recent news about Huawei.
