Research & Analysis

The Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) will soon formally review extending the first batch of Section 301 tariffs covering $34 billion worth of imports from China from Trump’s first term, including medical devices, robotics, and aerospace products.

The National People’s Congress Standing Committee has approved revisions to the Trademark Law, effective January 1, 2027. Compared to previous amendments, which adjusted the law at the margins, this revision is a more heavy-handed overhaul of measures handling bad faith trademark filings and regulating branding activities. The new version builds on the draft released for public comments in February and includes several positive changes recommended by USCBC.

At this year’s Lujiazui Forum in Shanghai, China’s top financial regulators announced the Shanghai International Financial Center Offshore Finance Action Plan, which aims to make the RMB more usable for offshore trading, settlement, financing, and risk management.

The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for 2027 is coming into focus after the House and Senate armed services committees advanced their versions of the bill earlier this month.

USCBC interviews Yi Fuxian, senior scientist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, on the factors behind China’s demographic decline, the impacts on its economy, and emerging commercial opportunities.

Exports from China are facing a new threat to their competitiveness: carbon border taxes. The EU’s carbon border adjustment mechanism, which took effect in January, requires the bloc’s importers to pay for the carbon emissions of the goods they purchase. Similar legislation is set to take effect next year in the United Kingdom, and Canada, Japan, Australia, and South Korea all have carbon import taxes in the legislative pipeline.

Beijing is systematically executing its AI+ Action Plan across specific industries, with the energy sector its most recent focus. On May 8, four Chinese government agencies jointly issued the Action Plan for Promoting the Mutual Empowerment of AI and Energy, offering an early glimpse into how Beijing will operationalize its AI ambitions. In explicitly linking AI development and energy security, the document solidifies China’s strategy of embedding AI in existing industrial systems rather than treating AI as its own separate industry.

On June 1, China’s State Council released the Regulation on Outbound Investment, elevating the issue to the State Council level and expanding oversight to factor in national security, technology transfer, capital flows, and data. The new rules will take effect on July 1.

The Department of Defense (DOD) on Monday released an updated 1260H list, which designates Chinese military-linked companies. Chinese tech giants Alibaba and Baidu, automaker BYD, biotech firm WuXi AppTec, robotics company RoboSense Technology, and router maker TP-Link are among those newly added.

US-China relations remain companies’ greatest challenge in the China market, and despite the truce, both governments continue to release new economic security policies. Against this backdrop, the business environment remains challenging for most companies. This year, China’s macroeconomy returned as companies’ second-biggest challenge.