China Market Intelligence

At the National People’s Congress (NPC) meetings in early March, China unveiled a flurry of reforms to its financial system intended to increase financial stability amid growing debt risks. According to a report from National Institution for Finance and Development, China’s debt-to-GDP ratio rose to 273.2 in 2022, rising nearly 10 points from the previous year.

On March 16, the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the State Council issued the Party and State Institutional Reform Plan. The plan rehashes the government restructuring announced earlier during China’s legislative meetings and creates five new party bodies to more directly oversee government work.

On March 7, during the annual Two Sessions conferences, the Chinese government released its budget report, entitled Report on the Execution of the Central and Local Budgets for 2022 and on the Draft Central and Local Budgets for 2023.

Over the past five years, the short-form video-sharing app TikTok has risen in popularity, garnering scrutiny from the US government along the way.

In recent months, China and Hong Kong have strengthened financial ties in the Greater Bay Area (GBA), a region the Chinese government has been nurturing in its economic planning for many years. The GBA includes the municipalities of Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Foshan, Huizhou, Dongguan, Zhongshan, Jiangmen, and Zhaoqing, as well as the special administrative regions of Macao and Hong Kong.

On March 13, the final day of the National People’s Congress (NPC) meetings, the legislative body officially approved China’s senior State Council leadership. There were not many surprises since many of the government personnel shifts were anticipated (or already announced) following the 20th Party Congress when senior officials took new positions in the Chinese Communist Party.

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.

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.

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.