Research & Analysis

On Wednesday, Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee Mark Warner (D-VA) and Republican Senate Whip John Thune (R-SD) introduced the Restricting the Emergence of Security Threats that Risk Information and Communications Technology (RESTRICT) Act, which would pave the way for TikTok to be banned in the United States.

There may be bipartisan dismay with China in the nation’s capital and distrust nearly everywhere else. Still, leaders of a school in Manhattan believe that cooperation between the world’s largest economies is inevitable and necessary.

On March 7, China’s State Council submitted a government restructuring plan to the National People’s Congress (NPC). Key elements of the plan include restructuring the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), creating a new data bureau, and creating a new administration overseeing the financial sector.

The SCC is one of three approved methods for CBDT of personal information under China’s 2021 Personal Information Protection Law. The other two methods are the government security review and personal information export certification.

Over the last couple of months, there have been several policy and regulatory updates in China’s financial services sector. Most importantly, today a new financial administration was announced at the National People’s Congress.

On March 5, Premier Li Keqiang opened China’s National People’s Congress (NPC) by delivering the annual Government Work Report, which sets China’s GDP growth target for the year and other high-level priorities. This is released in concert with the National Development and Reform Commission’s (NDRC) annual draft Plan for Economic and Social Development and the Ministry of Finance’s draft central and local government budgets, which include further details.

During primetime on Tuesday, the Select Committee on the Strategic Competition between the United States and the CCP held its first hearing, “The Chinese Communist Party’s Threat to America.” Two former US national security advisors, a human rights advocate, and a leader in the US manufacturing sector testified.

Since the United States imposed a set of unprecedented new export controls on China’s chipmaking sector last October, China’s leaders have struggled to form a coordinated policy response that offers clear instructions to government regulators and industry. One unifying fact is that all parties see US restrictions and efforts to bring allies on board as a serious threat to China’s domestic semiconductor sector and its ability to interact with the highly globalized semiconductor industry.

As China’s local governments concluded their annual Two Sessions meetings last month, local GDP targets and personnel changes have been announced. These meetings are forerunners to the national Two Sessions, China’s annual parliamentary meetings which are scheduled to begin on March 4 and provide a window to the national economic outlook and forthcoming policies.

Despite bilateral tensions, years of escalating trade restrictions, and lockdowns in China for much of 2022, US-China trade in goods increased 5.2 percent in 2022 to a record high of $690.6 billion. Growth in trade with China is part of a broader wave of record US trade with the world.