SATURDAY, AUGUST 1, 2020 B1
YTECH ECONOMY MEDIA FINANCE
3 MEDIA
A son of Rupert Murdoch
left the board of News Corp,
citing disagreements over
strategy and editorial content.
8 SPORTSHockey-mad Edmonton is
about to host a whole lotof N.H.L. games as a
postseason tournament site.SAN FRANCISCO — TikTok, the Chi-
nese-owned video app that has
been under scrutiny from the
Trump administration, is in talks
to sell itself to Microsoft and other
companies as President Trump
weighs harsh actions against the
business, including forcing TikTok
to divorce itself from its parent
company, ByteDance, said people
with knowledge of the discus-
sions.
The powerful Committee on
Foreign Investment in the United
States, or Cfius, has been examin-
ing ByteDance’s 2017 purchase of
Musical.ly, an app that eventually
morphed to become TikTok. The
committee has decided to order
ByteDance to divest TikTok, and
the government is engaged in ne-
gotiations over the terms of the
separation, according to a person
familiar with the administration’s
plans, who spoke on the condition
of anonymity. White House offi-
cials have said TikTok may pose aTikTok Eyed
By Microsoft
And Trump
This article is by Mike Isaac, Ana
Swansonand Alan Rappeport.CONTINUED ON PAGE B4READING, ENGLAND — The British
economy is facing its worst reces-
sion since “The Great Frost” of
1709, a horrifically cold winter.
Large retailers are shutting
stores, and inconsistent quaran-
tine rules are raising anxiety
about a second pandemic wave.
And yet Summertown, a suburb
north of Oxford, has something to
look forward to: Its main shop-
ping street is about to get a new
bookstore.
Daunt Books, a prominent
chain, is opening its ninth store
this weekend in Summertown.
The suburb’s last bookstore
closed in 2018 after nearly four
decades. “People are so delighted
a shop is opening and not closing,”
said Brett Wolstencroft, the man-
ager of the bookseller.
About 60 miles away, in central
London, the scene turns bleak.
Daunt’s flagship store on
Marylebone High Street, in an Ed-
wardian building with stained
glass and parquet floors, is nor-
Eschewing
High Streets
For Suburbs
By ESHE NELSONAn employee in an empty Daunt Books location on Cheapside, near St. Paul’s Cathedral, in central London.
“There is nobody there at the moment,” said the manager for the bookseller. “It’s down to a trickle of people.”SUZIE HOWELL FOR THE NEW YORK TIMESCONTINUED ON PAGE B4
XUZHOU, CHINA — At a cavernous factory in the Chinese
city of Xuzhou, 100 new workers have just been hired to
produce giant construction cranes. Nearby, at another
sprawling factory, employees toil until midnight to as-
semble drilling and tunneling machines. A few blocks
away, their colleagues at a factory that makes dump
trucks have received enough orders to keep them busy
well into next year.
These factories, and half a dozen more in the city, are
all owned by Xuzhou Construction Machinery Group, a
state-owned industrial behemoth that manufactures theoutsize machines behind China’s latest construction
boom.
The company, China’s largest producer of construc-
tion equipment, is at the center of Beijing’s strategy to
revive the country’s economy in the wake of the coro-
navirus pandemic by doubling down on a tested strat-
egy: investing in infrastructure projects at home.
China appears to have mostly eradicated the coro-
navirus within its borders. But outbreaks overseas have
caused economic downturns elsewhere that have hurt
foreign demand for Chinese exports, including the
trucks and machines made in Xuzhou.
Foreign markets helped fuel the country’s rapidgrowth for four decades. But now China is back to doing
business with a local customer — itself. Once again, Bei-
jing is investing heavily in the country’s own infrastruc-
ture, employing millions of people not just to build new
roads, railway lines and sewage systems but also to
make the equipment necessary for those projects.
“This year is a very bad year for overseas contracts,
and I cannot travel,” said Vincent Cao, the drilling and
tunneling equipment manager at the company, better
known by its initials XCMG. Despite those limitations,
business is booming, he said, adding: “It is a good yearChina’s state-owned
Xuzhou Construction
Machinery Group is
keeping its 20,000
workers busy in the
wake of the pandemic.GIULIA MARCHI FOR THE NEW YORK TIMESTrying to Build a Road
To Economic Recovery
Beijing counters an export bust with an infrastructure boom.
By KEITH BRADSHERCONTINUED ON PAGE B5LONDON — Laurence D. Fink
presents himself as the vanguard
of a progressive form of capital-
ism in which profits are not every-
thing: The enlightened money is
supposed to press for envi-
ronmental and social protection.
As the chief executive of Black-
Rock, the world’s largest invest-
ment management company, Mr.
Fink oversees more than $7 tril-
lion. He has steered some of that
fortune to the crisis-racked nation
of Argentina, purchasing govern-
ment bonds.
But as Argentina — in default
since May — seeks forgiveness on
$66 billion in bonds, Mr. Fink’s of-
ten-espoused faith in “stakehold-
er capitalism” is colliding with tra-
ditional bottom-line imperatives.
Though poverty is soaring in Ar-
gentina as the pandemic worsens
a punishing economic downturn,
BlackRock is opposing a settle-
ment proposed by the govern-
ment and rallying other creditorsBlackRock
Faces Test
Of Principles
By PETER S. GOODMAN
and DANIEL POLITICONTINUED ON PAGE B36 WEALTH MATTERSIf you can’t own a luxury
item like a Birkin bag,you can buy a share of
one, although it is risky.