The US has blacklisted 28 Chinese companies—mostly in the tech sector—over China’s “campaign targeting Uighurs and other predominantly Muslim minorities in the autonomous region of Xingjiang,” a move that’s drawn both criticism in China and also comes as the U.S. has actively sought to protect US tech giants in its various bilateral trade agreements – NYTimes and WSJ and Bloomberg
The move comes at an interesting time between the two superpowers, because even while narrowing the scope of discussions for a trade deal with the U.S. in recent days, China has made good on its promise to restart soybean purchasing from American farmers, snapping up the most metric tonnage of the crop in recent months since January 2018 – WSJ
Nissan has named its China business leader, Makoto Uchida, as its new CEO. Current Mitsubishi COO Ashwani Gupta is also set to assume that role for Nissan, too – WSJ
Just weeks after unveiling Peacock, its new streaming-video service, NBCUniversal has already swapped out the service’s announced leader, Bonnie Hammer, for longtime Comcast exec Matt Strauss – NYTimes and WSJ and MarketWatch
Yesterday’s news of GE’s coming pension freezes gives the Journal an opportunity to think deeper about CEO Larry Culp’s turnaround efforts at the corporate giant, most of which focus on fixing, not dismantling – WSJ
World Bank chief David Malpass is joining the increasing chorus of economic authorities and regulators warning about slowing global growth, citing “Brexit, Europe’s recession and trade uncertainty” as driving factors in his assessment – Bloomberg
Target and other big-box peers are increasingly incorporating solar power (often positioned on the roofs of their vast retail footprints) into their repertoire as part of its goal of “mission to attain 100 percent renewable electricity in its stores” – NYTimes
An ugly rollout for Bakkt, a “bitcoin-figures platform created by Intercontinental Exchange Inc.” that went live two weeks ago, is having unfortunate ripple effects for the cryptocurrency itself, with bitcoin’s price falling nearly 20% in that same period – WSJ
Meanwhile, a group of crypto investors has accused Bitfinex and Tether of coordinating to “manipulate the price of Bitcoin, potentially costing the market $466 billion” and are seeking to treble those damages in their RICO and antitrust lawsuit in NY federal court – Law360
Luxury grocer Dean & DeLuca—the “gourmet grocer whose trend-setting New York store introduced Americans to international delicacies more than four decades ago” [and that served as the backdrop to 1993’s time-capsule Matthew Broderick offering “The Night We Never Met”]—has shuttered its flagship SoHo location. The chain is calling the closing temporary, though there’s no details about a reopen date – Bloomberg
As the weather takes a turn here in the North (snow showers this weekend! Lovely!), it seems like the right time to celebrate the resurgence of the Midwestern Supper Club—one of the few Wisconsin specialties we’re happy to claim as all of ours – NYTimes
