The Wall Street Journal reports: "Yum Brands Inc., once one of the biggest success stories among foreign companies in China, plans to split off its China business after years of unsuccessful efforts to get it back on track. When the transition is completed by the end of next year, Yum China will be a separate, publicly traded franchisee of Yum Brands, the company said Tuesday. Yum China will pay its former parent company a percentage of its sales for the exclusive brand rights to KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, which isn't yet in China, it said. 'What we wanted to do was a thorough and rigorous review of the options available to us and we tried to get down to one option we all felt would unlock the most shareholder value,' Yum Chief Executive Greg Creed said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. 'Yum will become a pure-play franchiser with greater stability and lower volatility.'"
The New York Times reports: "While President Xi Jinping says the country is committed to financial reform, the resulting measures send the message that China is backpedaling on those efforts. It is a new and shifting landscape that is proving difficult for the rest of the world to navigate. 'People say reform is coming, but you're giving back your reforms,' Fraser Howie, a longtime banker in Asia and co-author of 'Red Capitalism: The Fragile Financial Foundation of China's Extraordinary Rise,' said of the recent actions by Chinese authorities. 'That defeats the whole purpose; you either embrace markets or not,' he said. For years, the technocrats who control the levers of China's economy have been heralded as farsighted planners. What they promised, they generally delivered, and any doubts could be dispelled by the nation's torrid economic growth.
Bloomberg News reports: "David Cameron said Chinese President Xi Jinping will bring more than 30 billion pounds ($46 billion) in deals and investment on his visit to Britain this week, as the prime minister defended himself against charges he was being too warm towards his visitor. The deals will create 3,900 jobs in the U.K., in sectors including the creative industries, retail, energy, health and technology, financial services, aerospace and education, Cameron's office said in an e-mailed statement, without giving further details. Meanwhile, 5,200 British steelworkers face losing their jobs, according to the Trades Union Congress, after a series of plants announced job cuts in the face of cheaper imports, including from China. Cameron said Monday he would raise the issue of dumping of steel on the international market with Xi during their meetings. 'Trade and investment between our two nations is growing and our people-to-people links are strong,' Cameron said in the statement. 'This visit will be an opportunity to review all of these things but also talk about how the U.K. and China can work together on global issues such as climate change and tackling poverty. It's a real opportunity to deepen our relationship.'"