Stabilization green shoots?; PRC cuts off batteries for Skydio drones; US-PRC prisoner swap; Huawei; Yao Ming retires as head of the CBA

Summary of today’s top items:

1. Stabilization green shoots? - The official manufacturing PMI was above 50, barely, for the first time since May, and the value of October new home sales by the top 100 developers was up over 7% from October 2023. So perhaps the recent policy measures to stabilize the economy are starting to show some effect?

2. PRC cuts off batteries for Skydio drones - The Financial Times scooped that Skydio, a US drone maker the PRC sanctioned earlier in October for arms sales to Taiwan, is running out of batteries because they source them from the PRC and the government has told their supplier to cut them off. This is a good reminder for any firm not just selling arms to Taiwan but also engaged in anything the PRC could now or in the future construe as endangering the PRC’s growing interests that they need to end reliance on China for critical components. It is a bit surprising though that a company could think it could sell drones in an arms package to Taiwan while …