The Department of Commerce announced this morning that beginning at 11:59 pm on Sunday, September 20, restrictions on both WeChat and TikTok will come into place, although some restrictions on TikTok will be delayed. The scoping of the order is restricted to the United States and will not impact American users in China or other international markets.
China Market Intelligence
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September 18th, 2020
September 16th, 2020
Last month, WTO Director General Roberto Azevedo resigned from his role leading the World Trade Organization (WTO) a full year before his second 4-year term was scheduled to end. Azevedo’s surprise announcement this spring underscored mounting dysfunction in the global trading system just as the massive economic toll of the COVID-19 pandemic and the challenges of developing an international response were coming into focus. A new leader—to be selected this fall—will have the high-stakes task...
September 16th, 2020
On August 20, the State Cryptography Agency (SCA) released revised draft Commercial Cryptography Management Measures for public comment until September 19. An implementing regulation to last year’s Cryptography Law, this revision updates decades-old measures and raises fresh concerns regarding the scope of commercial cryptography technology subject to new compliance requirements. Depending on how these concerns are addressed by a final draft, foreign companies may find themselves being...
September 16th, 2020
Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) named Xiao Yaqing (肖亚庆) as Party secretary and minister after former Minister Miao Yu (苗圩) reached the mandatory retirement age of 65. Xiao previously served as director of the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR), a super-regulator that oversees entity registration, food and drug safety, antitrust enforcement, intellectual property protection, and standards. USCBC’s Board of Directors met with Xiao last October in Beijing...
September 2nd, 2020
On August 5, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced expansions to the Trump administration’s Clean Network program, hinting at a potential future in which the internet and technology are divided along geopolitical lines. The overarching goal of the Clean Network program is to secure US personal information and ICT infrastructure from “malign actors” with an explicit focus on China. The program was originally announced as the 5G Clean Path Initiative on April 29. Clean Path promulgated that...
September 2nd, 2020
The US-China Business Council (USCBC) has been monitoring China’s Foreign Investment Law (FIL) and corresponding implementing regulations, both of which went into effect at the beginning of this year. On August 10, the Shanghai Municipal People’s Congress promulgated draft Shanghai Foreign Investment Regulations, which are open for comment until September 10. Shanghai is the first locality to implement its own set of specific implementing regulations for the FIL.
September 2nd, 2020
With China factoring more prominently in the 2020 presidential election, both Former Vice President Joe Biden and President Donald Trump have accused the other of being too soft on China. The Democratic party platform and remarks by Biden so far indicate the former vice president would pursue a multilateral approach to China, working with like-minded partners to negotiate trade policies that are more in-line with global norms. However, Biden’s greater economic agenda—which is the cornerstone...
August 19th, 2020
Recent executive actions taken by the White House have provoked questions from US industry about their ability to continue leveraging important commercial mobile applications in the China market. On Thursday, August 6, the White House issued two executive orders (EOs) that would ban all transactions with ByteDance (the owner of TikTok ) and WeChat, two prominent Chinese mobile applications. Both orders cite national security risks posed by the collection of data on American citizens as well...
August 19th, 2020
China continues to tweak and try to improve its social credit system (SCS), despite concerns that it creates a parallel law enforcement structure distinct from existing judicial and administrative frameworks. Draft guiding opinions published in July aim to take lessons learned from current challenges with the SCS pilots and make adjustments to its implementation.
August 19th, 2020
US trade with China continues to decline in 2020 due to COVID-19 impacts and remaining tariffs. So far, goods exports to China have fallen 4.6 percent and imports from China have fallen 17 percent compared to the same period last year. The US goods deficit with China has declined 21 percent, driven mostly by the drop in imports.
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Phase One Tracker
We are tracking over 150 commitments—several of which had never been offered before—on items ranging from market access to improving intellectual property rights protection and administrative reforms.
