Good morning, and welcome to the first Asia Links of the week
Beijing eases zero-covid restrictions on transport to revive economy (FT)
China expands hospitals and ICUs as it faces covid surge (CNBC)
Beijing swings from anger over zero-covid to coping with infections (Reuters)
Wrong, wrong and wrong again — some Western media’s unprincipled criticism of China’s covid policy (People’s Daily)
Senior US delegation to visit China in coming days (Reuters, SCMP)
Xi seeks yuan settlement of China energy trades with Gulf states (Caixin)
Saudi Arabia says $50bn in investments agreed at China summit (Bloomberg)
China to advance high-level opening up, expand institutional opening up: premier (People’s Daily)
Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai sentenced to five years for fraud (BBC, AP, Washington Post)
China props up belt-and-road borrowers via currency swap lines (WSJ)
Japan LDP policy chief meets Taiwan’s Tsai amid China strain (Bloomberg, Taipei Times)
Air India close to ordering 500 planes under new Tata ownership (Reuters)
SoftBank, Tencent lead way as Asia tech investors sell shares (WSJ)
US puts sanctions on two Chinese companies over alleged illegal fishing (FT)
Is China doubling down on assimilation of ethnic groups? (SCMP)
Australia’s Telstra suffers privacy breach affecting 132,000 customers (Reuters)
Thousands join pre-election protests in Bangladesh (BBC, Indian Express)
Hundreds of anti-Marcos protesters march in Manila (AP)
Washington won’t chip away at China’s military with semiconductor sanctions (East Asia Forum)
US scientists boost clean power hopes with fusion energy breakthrough (FT)