On March 5, during the annual Two Sessions conference, China released its government budget report, which lays out how the state intends to spend in 2024. This year’s budget is conservative, with increases to revenue and expenditure in line with previous years.
In Washington, the popular social media app TikTok is back in the spotlight after previous legislative efforts to rein it in abruptly stalled. Led by House Select Committee on the CCP Chair Mike Gallagher (R-WI) and Ranking Member Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL), the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act would prohibit TikTok from being offered in app stores in the United States unless TikTok severs its relationship with ByteDance, its Chinese parent company.
On March 5, Premier Li Qiang opened the National People’s Congress by delivering the annual government work report. The report was released in concert with the National Development and Reform Commission’s (NDRC) annual draft Plan for Economic and Social Development as well as the Ministry of Finance’s (MOF) draft central and local government budgets, which include further details that complement the premier’s work report.
The Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) will open on March 4, followed by the start of the National People’s Congress (NPC) on March 5. These meetings are collectively known as the Two Sessions, China’s most important annual political event where the country’s high-level economic policies for the coming year are laid out in the Government Work Report, which will be delivered by Premier Li Qiang.
US-China trade in goods decreased 16.7 percent in 2023 to $575 billion after reaching a record high in 2022, according to data released by the US Department of Commerce on February 7. The decrease in bilateral trade reflects a drop in US goods exports to China and a plunge in US goods imports from China that far exceeded decreases in US-worldwide exports and imports.
US ties to China’s biotechnology industry are under intense scrutiny on Capitol Hill these days. During last year’s FY2024 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), Congress passed a provision to potentially prohibit the Department of Defense from entering into contracts with certain Chinese biotech firms.
Last November, the State Council issued plans for both the Beijing and Shanghai Free Trade Zones (FTZ), stating further commitments in liberalizing service sectors for foreign investment and facilitating trade. In the plans, Beijing and Shanghai respectively issued policy frameworks to give foreign investors more access in healthcare, finance, and telecommunication services, among others.
Aligning with the 24 Measures, a policy directive from the State Council aimed at attracting foreign investment, China’s intellectual property (IP) agencies have undertaken multiple measures aimed at addressing the concerns of foreign IP rights holders.
US and Chinese officials are meeting more frequently than in recent years, thanks in large part to the over a dozen working groups and dialogues established or restarted amid a thaw in bilateral relations that began in 2023. These mechanisms were established to address global and bilateral issues relating to economics and trade, military-to-military communications, climate change, counternarcotics, and more.
US-China technology competition is expected to continue unabated in 2024. In high tech, both governments continue to de-risk their economies from the other’s through industrial policy and export controls, which have spilled over into previously uncontrolled sectors, such as cloud computing.
