The bodies overseeing financial, social, science and technology, and Hong Kong and Macao work have shifted to direct party control.
China Market Intelligence
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March 16th, 2023
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. The budget’s proposed expenditures are generally conservative, as the government’s ability to raise revenues in 2022 was constrained by land sale restrictions, an important source of government revenues, and the large tax refunds issued to counteract the...
March 16th, 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 October of last year, Chair of the House Select Committee on the CCP, Mike Gallagher (R-WI), and Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) penned an op-ed outlining concerns that the app, by way of its Chinese parent company Bytedance, would be subject to hypothetical CCP orders to 1) hand over US citizens’ sensitive personal information and 2) alter its...
March 16th, 2023
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. In 2022, the region’s GDP was approximately RMB 13 trillion, nearly the same size as Canada’s GDP....
March 15th, 2023
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. Xi Jinping was elected to a precedent-breaking third term as president as expected without a single dissenting...
March 8th, 2023
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 proposed changes reflect China’s current priorities of advancing its technological development amid an intensifying competition with the United States, treating data as a national...
March 7th, 2023
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. This year’s report and plan do not...
March 1st, 2023
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....
March 1st, 2023
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. This year’s event will be more significant as it will inaugurate China’s new premier and new cabinet members. It is also a...
March 1st, 2023
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.
