China Market Intelligence

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.

China’s 2023 GDP growth was above 5 percent, surpassing the official target. Given that China’s economic performance in 2022 was lackluster, China will require much stronger economic activity to maintain a similar growth rate. Policymakers continue to opt for limited fiscal stimulus and are instead looking to attract foreign investment to catalyze growth for the time being.

Multiple states in the United States are considering passing legislation to regulate land purchases by Chinese entities in 2024. This is a continuation of a pattern that began last year that reflects broader tensions between the United States and China.

As 2024 begins, it is essential to understand how dynamics between the United States and China changed over the course of last year. At the start of 2023, China had only just begun unwinding its zero-COVID policies.