Key details on the agenda and deliverables for President Donald Trump’s trip to China early next month remain unclear as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer prepare to meet with China’s Vice Premier He Lifeng in Paris over Sunday and Monday.
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 Wednesday, Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee Mark Warner (D-VA) and Republican Senate Whip John Thune (R-SD) introduced the Restricting the Emergence of Security Threats that Risk Information and Communications Technology (RESTRICT) Act, which would pave the way for TikTok to be banned in the United States.
There may be bipartisan dismay with China in the nation’s capital and distrust nearly everywhere else. Still, leaders of a school in Manhattan believe that cooperation between the world’s largest economies is inevitable and necessary.
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.
