Aug 18, 2020 08:45 PM

China Business Digest: China Opens Anti-Dumping Probe Into Australian Wine; Infection Flare-Up Among Chinese Builders in Israel

A cluster of coronavirus infections was reported among Chinese construction workers in Israel. Chinese scientists moved forward in creating a vaccine against swine fever. Zoom tapped Singapore for new data center. China opened an anti-dumping probe on wine from Australia. Meanwhile, Oracle joined the competition to buy TikTok’s U.S. operations. And Japan’s foreign minister is offering Covid-19 medical assistance to several countries in Southeast Asia to counter China’s influence in the region.

— By Lu Yutong (yutonglu@caixin.com) and Han Wei (weihan@caixin.com)

** TOP STORIES OF THE DAY

Infection cluster among Chinese construction workers in Israel

About 90 Chinese construction workers in Petah Tikva, central Israel, tested positive with the novel coronavirus as of Friday, fueling concerns of a new flare-up of the disease, local media reported. Most of the patients had mild symptoms or were asymptomatic, reports said. They were placed under quarantine or sent to a hospital for treatment.

Zoom opens first data center in Singapore

Zoom Video Communications Inc., operator of the popular conferencing app, opened a data center in Singapore, diversifying its network and expanding into Southeast Asia for the first time. Zoom said it plans to hire an unspecified number of engineers and sales staff and to offer new services.

China advances development of swine flu vaccine

Scientists in China are preparing to expand clinical trials of a vaccine against swine fever, a disease that hit Chinese hog production badly since last year. The vaccine, developed by the Harbin Veterinary Research Institute, has been shown to be safe after early-stage studies.

China launches anti-dumping probe into wine imports from Australia

China’s Ministry of Commerce on Tuesday announced it has opened an anti-dumping probe (link in Chinese) into wine from Australia. The probe applies to containers holding two liters of wine or less. It follows a complaint from the China Alcoholic Drinks Association, which alleges domestic producers were harmed between 2015 and 2019.

Oracle enters race to buy TikTok’s U.S. operation

Computer technology company Oracle Corp. has entered the race to buy short video app TikTok, the Financial Times reported. The tech company has held preliminary talks with TikTok’s Chinese owner ByteDance Ltd., and is seriously considering purchasing the app’s operations in the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

Lufax ties up with Thai bank for local online wealth management

Chinese online internet finance marketplace Lufax, which is backed by Ping An Insurance Group Co. of China Ltd., said one of its subsidiaries has formed an alliance with Kasikornbank PCL to set up a jointly operated online wealth management platform in Thailand that targets individual investors, Reuters reported.

Japanese minister denies concern about Abe’s health

Japanese Economy Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura said on Monday that he wasn’t worried about the health of the country’s longest-serving prime minister, Shinzo Abe, who was seen arriving at a Tokyo hospital where he stayed for several hours on Monday, Bloomberg reported. The Prime Minister’s Office hasn’t put out any official statement on the matter.

Trump promises tax credit for firms bringing jobs back from China

U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday vowed to create 10 million jobs in 10 months, in part by setting up tax credits for U.S. companies that relocate manufacturing facilities to the United States from China, Reuters reported. His administration would also strip federal contracts from companies that outsource work to China.

China pushes for wider use of yuan in global trade

The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) said it will insist on a market-oriented method to facilitate trade and investment and further expand access to foreign investors who use the yuan, also known as the renminbi (RMB), to invest in Chinese bonds and stocks, according to its latest annual RMB Internationalization Report.

China’s bank regulator warns dollar dominance is seed of financial crisis

China Banking Regulatory Commission Chairman Guo Shuqing cautioned that U.S. dollar dominance combined with the massive stimulus unleashed by the Federal Reserve could push the world to the edge of another financial crisis. “... the unprecedented, unlimited quantitative easing policy of the U.S. actually consumes the creditworthiness of the dollar and erodes the foundation of global financial stability,” Guo wrote in an article published on Sunday.

** OTHER STORIES MAKING THE HEADLINES

Finance & Economy

• Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi has embarked on an expansive tour of Southeast Asia to offer medical assistance to several countries amid the Covid-19 pandemic. The tour aims to curtail China’s influence in the region.

• MSCI Inc. published two climate change indexes on Tuesday that allow investors in China stocks to gear their investments more toward companies with lower carbon emissions, Reuters reported. Compared with their parent indexes, the newly created ones allocate more weighting to companies that produce less pollution.

Business & Tech

• Solar cell producer JA Solar Technology Co. Ltd. (link in Chinese) reported that its first-half profit spiked 77.7% to 701 million yuan ($101 million), with the overseas market contributing nearly 70% of its revenue, according to interim report filed Tuesday to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.

• Chinese tech giant Tencent Holdings Ltd. has taken a minority stake in Paris-based video game developer Voodoo SAS, the French company said in a LinkedIn post on Monday. Voodoo said the deal put the company’s enterprise value at $1.4 billion, though it didn’t disclose other key details.

• Li Dongsheng, founder of electronics-maker TCL Technology Group Corp. (link in Chinese) announced Monday that the company will establish its northern regional headquarters in Tianjin and will invest 6.2 billion yuan in Tianjin Zhonghuan Electronics and Information Group Co. Ltd., which it acquired last month and is set to shoulder the new headquarters’ core business.

• China’s leading online entertainment ticketing provider Maoyan Entertainment posted a loss of 430.7 million yuan in the first half of the year due to a 90% drop in revenue during the epidemic, according to its interim report released Monday. The company posted a profit of 257 million yuan for the same period last year.

• TikTok said Monday that it started a website and Twitter account to address what it called rumors in real time, adding that “we neither support nor stand for the spread of misinformation” on or about its platform.

** ON THE CORONAVIRUS

• The Chinese mainland reported 22 new coronavirus cases (link in Chinese) for Monday, the same as the tally from a day earlier, according to the National Health Commission. All new infections were imported, with 14 of those arriving in Shanghai.

• South Korea on Monday reported the highest number of cases since early March due to a fresh cluster of infections connected with giant churches in the country, Bloomberg reported.

• As of Tuesday afternoon Beijing time, the number of global Covid-19 infections topped 21.9 million, with fatalities surpassing 774,300, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

** AND FINALLY

A restaurant chain in the central Chinese city of Changsha has stirred up a debate on social media for asking customers to weigh themselves before they order so it can offer suggestions on dishes that contain an “appropriate” amount of calories. The chain said the move is in response to a recent public health campaign that seeks to curtail over-ordering.

** LOOKING AHEAD

Release of second-quarter financial results:

Aug. 20: Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.

Aug. 21: Meituan Dianping and Pinduoduo Inc.

Contact reporter Lu Yutong (yutonglu@caixin.com) and editors Yang Ge (geyang@caixin.com) and Michael Bellart (michaelbellart@caixin.com)

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