Good morning and welcome to Wednesday’s Asia Links. May the forth be with you
Stocks, bonds fall in lockstep at pace unseen in decades (WSJ)
US trade office says it has begun reviewing whether to lift China tariffs (SCMP, Nikkei Asia)
Australia raises rates for the first time in 11 years, by 0.25%, signals more to come (BBC, FT)
Hong Kong economy shrinks 4% in first quarter (SCMP, Bloomberg)
Hong Kong loosens covid rules after sharp economic contraction (FT)
Shanghai adds 73 covid cases outside quarantine zones, delaying lockdown easing (SCMP)
Central city of Zhengzhou imposes new covid curbs May 4-10 (Reuters)
Hong Kong plunges to record low of 148th in world press freedom rankings (SCMP)
Top Nomura trader admits lying to clients, but says everyone did (Bloomberg)
Australian billionaire climate activist Mike Cannon-Brookes invests $461m to block demerger of energy company AGL (Forbes)
World Bank report on trade and investment impact of Ukraine war: trade down 1%, reducing world GDP by just under 1%
China aircraft carrier group heads to Western Pacific for ‘realistic combat’ training (AP)
Rocket strike on Ukraine’s Odesa causes death, injuries (People’s Daily)
Fearful of getting cut off, China pushes for self-reliance (WSJ)
Xi encourages youth to boost China’s aerospace sci-tech self-reliance (China Daily)
What if the West sanctions China like it has Russia? (SCMP)
Sri Lanka’s Rajapaksa family tried to force agriculture to become organic. It was a disaster (Foreign Policy)
The global stagflation shock of 2022: How bad could it get? (FT)
Wonkery: Should tech firms be allowed to own banks? (VoxEU)
China cracked down on big tech companies. Now it needs them (Bloomberg)
Alibaba shares slump after authorities say they’d detained an individual named “Ma”. Turns out it wasn’t that “Ma” (FT)
China wants its investments in Afghanistan to be safer than Pakistan (Foreign Policy)
Setback for billionaire Peter Thiel’s plans to build a luxury lodge in New Zealand (Guardian)