Good morning. An industrial plan China rolled out a decade ago that was criticized by the U.S. as protectionist has been highly successful in narrowing China’s technological gap with the West, a new study finds.

The study, commissioned by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, is set to intensify the debate in Washington and elsewhere over how to counter China’s use of state subsidies and other strategies to bolster its competitiveness.

• History of policy: To placate President Trump during his first-term trade war with China, Beijing dropped mentions of the “Made in China 2025” plan, leader Xi Jinping’s signature industrial strategy, from public discourse. But the policy stayed in place.
   
• What the study showed: The study, released Monday, shows that enormous state support unleashed under the strategy has enabled China to eliminate or reduce its dependence on imports such as rail and power equipment, medical devices and renewable-energy products. In addition, Chinese companies have become more competitive globally, gaining market share from foreign companies in sectors including shipbuilding and robotics.
   
• Impact: The findings in the study, conducted by economic consulting firm Rhodium Group, highlight the stakes for the U.S. and other advanced economies as Beijing continues to advance Xi’s blueprint to make China a leader in high-tech industries.

At the WSJ CCO Council Summit in London on May 7 attendees will hear about the most significant policy changes under the Trump administration from Jonathan Kewley, who co-chairs the global tech group at law firm Clifford Chance and is a recognized expert in AI, cybersecurity and data.

They will also hear from John Smith, co-head of law firm Morrison & Foerster’s national security practice and a former director of the Office of Foreign Assets Control, the primary U.S. sanctions enforcement body.

Big changes are coming for crypto under Trump’s CFTC. What’s in store?

When it comes to cryptocurrencies, securities regulators may get a lot of headlines, but don’t count out the commodities cops, reports Barron's.

While the Securities and Exchange Commission remains crypto curious with a task force considering how to handle those markets, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission still oversees Bitcoin and Ethereum, along with dollar-pegged stablecoins like Tether.

FinCEN wants to cut off alleged Cambodian money laundering.

The U.S. Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network has designated Cambodia-based financial conglomerate Huione Group as a “primary money laundering concern,” including for its links to North Korea, and proposed severing its access to the U.S. financial system through a special measure under the USA Patriot Act.

According to a notice published in the Federal Register on Monday, the designation follows FinCEN’s finding that Huione Group laundered at least $4 billion worth of illicit proceeds between August 2021 and January 2025, including $37 million connected to North Korean cyber heists, $36 million from cryptocurrency investment scams and $300 million from other cyber frauds.

• OpenAI has called off a controversial effort to change which entity controls its juggernaut artificial intelligence business.
   
• The U.K.’s Export Control Joint Unit has published new regulations updating strategic export controls on military and dual-use items as part of periodic adjustments to align with international control regimes.
   
• The European Court of Justice has ruled transporting euro-denominated banknotes to Russia to pay for medical treatment doesn’t qualify as an exemption to EU sanctions, which prohibit the export of euros to Russia.
   
• The United Nations Secretary-General has reported the arms embargo on Libya remains largely ineffective despite enforcement efforts by the European Union’s naval mission.

Corporate America is leaving more jobs unfilled.

Major U.S. employers are starting to take a new approach to jobs: Hire less—or not at all.

T. Rowe Price is slowing hiring. JetBlue is reducing nonessential hiring. Polaris, which makes off-road vehicles, has paused some hiring for now. And more than a dozen universities, from Harvard to Duke, have enacted hiring freezes. All the organizations, and many more, say bringing in fewer employees will help them cut costs and weather a turbulent moment.

Why? A stop-start trade war, sinking consumer confidence and dramatic cuts to federal funding in education, research and the sciences have piled up in the past month. They come on top of companies’ yearslong desire to embrace artificial intelligence to make workers more efficient.

Taiwan central bank says U.S. didn’t make forex demands, urges calm as currency surges.

Taiwan’s central bank has denied speculation that the U.S. asked the island to lift the value of the Taiwan dollar, convening an emergency meeting to urge calm after the currency resumed a blistering rally on Monday.

The Taiwan dollar’s appreciation in the past two sessions was fueled by foreign-capital inflows into local markets, as well as a rebound in global stock market sentiment over trade tariff hopes, said Yang Chin-Long, governor of the Central Bank of the Republic of China (Taiwan).

Taiwan’s export-heavy economy and central role in global supply chains leaves it particularly vulnerable to trade disruptions and policy uncertainty. Local currency appreciation would further hurt exporters’ profit margins.

• Not long ago, anyone could comb through a wide range of official data from China. Then it started to disappear.
   
• A private gauge of China’s services sector signaled that activity slowed in April, falling to a seven-month low as U.S. President Trump’s hefty tariffs fueled trade tensions and hurt new orders and market sentiment.
   
• In their deepening alliance, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has helped Russian President Vladimir Putin withstand the pressure of the Ukraine war by sending him soldiers and arms. The latest gift from Kim: workers.
   
• Tariffs threaten to disrupt the supply chains that underpin the semiconductor industry, raise costs and even trigger a recession, the chief executive of German chip-making equipment supplier Suss MicroTec said.
   
• The European Union’s top policymaker said the bloc will protect foreign scientists that relocate to the region as it seeks to catch up with the U.S. and China on innovative technologies like artificial intelligence.
   
• Israel’s military on Monday carried out airstrikes against targets in Yemen, a day after the Houthi rebel group launched a ballistic missile that struck near Israel’s main airport.
   
• President Trump’s planned 100% tariff on films produced overseas weighed on entertainment company stocks early Monday, though details remain scant on how the administration intends to implement the policy.

• The Trump administration’s latest threat to colleges and universities: Get your former students to pay back their loans or future students might not get any.
   
• Terrorists in Europe are getting younger, and authorities are struggling to find them.
   
• Hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman said it would be fair for Harvard University to lose its tax-exempt status, but he doesn’t think it will come to that.
   
• Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth used Signal more extensively for official Pentagon business than previously disclosed, engaging in at least a dozen separate chats, people familiar with his management practices said.
   
• Warren Buffett has done what he can to prepare his successor at Berkshire Hathaway. There is one thing he can’t simply hand off to the next guy: the Buffett brand and the glow it imbues on anything his company touches.

Follow us on X at @WSJRisk. Send tips to our reporters Mengqi Sun at mengqi.sun@wsj.com and Richard Vanderford at