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China’s Post-Pandemic Recovery Has Severe Regional Imbalances—Survey

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Wildfires Taint West Coast Vineyards With Taste of Smoke

TURNER, Ore.—Smoke from the West Coast wildfires has tainted grapes in some of the nation’s most celebrated wine regions with an ashy flavor that could spell disaster for the 2020 vintage. Wineries in California, Oregon, and Washington have survived severe wildfires before, but the smoke from this year’s blazes has been especially bad—thick enough to obscure vineyards drooping with clusters of grapes almost ready for harvest. Day after day, some West Coast cities endured some of the worst air quality in the world. No one knows the extent of the smoke damage to the crop, and growers are trying to assess the severity. If tainted grapes are made into wine without steps to minimize the harm or weed out the damaged fruit, the result could be wine so bad that…

China’s Post-Pandemic Recovery Has Severe Regional Imbalances—Survey

BEIJING—While China’s coastal provinces and major cities are recovering from the coronavirus pandemic, firms in its poorer western and central provinces are falling well behind in metrics like output and sales revenue, a private survey showed on Thursday.

The majority of firms are recovering far more slowly than those in wealthier areas around Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangdong, said a report from China Beige Book International (CBB).

While revenue and profits for the third quarter saw steep declines year-on-year across China, many interior provinces also saw output, domestic orders, and sales prices falling from the second quarter as well, according to a quarterly survey of thousands of Chinese firms by the U.S.-based consultancy.

For instance, sales revenues increased 41 percent quarter-on-quarter for Shanghai and the wealthy eastern provinces of Zhejiang and Jiangsu, but fell by 10 percent in the more remote western regions of Tibet, Gansu, Qinghai, and Xinjiang, it said.

“For the corporate elite—large firms and those based in the Big 3 coastal regions—the economy is accelerating … But the rest of China—most firms in most regions—are seeing a far more muted recovery,” said Derek Scissors, chief economist at CBB, in comments issued with the survey.

In August, China’s industrial output accelerated the most in eight months, while retail sales grew for the first time this year, suggesting the economic recovery is gathering pace as demand starts to improve more broadly from the coronavirus crisis.

Regional divergences were also visible in credit, according to the consultancy, with a far higher proportion of firms in the wealthy areas around Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangdong accessing capital.

“Borrowing levels stayed flat or fell outright in 4 of 5 non-coastal regions,” it said in the report.

By Gabriel Crossley

Focus News: China’s Post-Pandemic Recovery Has Severe Regional Imbalances—Survey

DOJ: More Than 300 Charged With Crimes Committed Near or at Protests Since May

More than 300 people have been charged for committing crimes “adjacent to or under the guise of peaceful demonstrations since the end of May,” the Department of Justice announced Thursday. The crimes were committed in 29 states and Washington, authorities said. Assaulting a law enforcement officer, attempted murder, arson, and damaging federal property are among the charges filed. Approximately 80 people have been charged with offenses relating to arson and explosives; 15 have been charged with damaging federal property. Rioters inflicted millions of dollars of damage to city and federal property across the United States in recent months, including the Minneapolis Police Department’s Third Precinct, the Nashville City Hall in Tennessee, and the聽Mark O. Hatfield Courthouse, a federal building, in Portland, Oregon. Criminals have also targeted small and big businesses,…