Xinhua: Establishment of Nationwide Party Committee Social Work Departments Completed
The Chinese Communist Party established a “Social Work Department” at the 20th National Party Congress. Xinhua News Agency reported that a “Conference of National Party Social Work Department Heads” was held in Beijing on February 22. According to the meeting’s announcement, all provinces have established “Party Committee’s Social Work Departments” and have begun to comprehensively fulfill their responsibilities.
A major responsibility of the Social Work Department is to “lead Party development at the grassroots governance level.” In 2024, “national social work” activities will focus on “developing and enhancing the grassroots-level governance.” It will also “ensure the Party’s comprehensive leadership over industry associations and chambers of commerce, and strengthen the Party work at national industry associations and chambers of commerce.” The plan is to make “solid progress on Party development in mixed-ownership enterprises, private enterprises, new economic organizations, new social organizations, and new employment groups,” and also to “improve the volunteer service system.”
Source: Xinhua, February 22, 2024
http://www.news.cn/politics/20240222/c7ec36396b7740acaaa8b3df2d356452/c.html
Xinhua: China’s E-commerce Platforms Expanding Rapidly Overseas
Xinhua News Agency reported rapid growth in the “going global” trend of China’s e-commerce platforms. This includes the B2B model of Alibaba International or the B2C models of AliExpress, Temu, and TikTok Shop. According to data from China’s Ministry of Commerce, the imports and exports for China’s e-commerce platforms reached 2.38 trillion Yuan (US$ 330 billion) in 2023, an increase of 15.6 percent from the previous year. Exports, specifically, amounted to 1.83 trillion Yuan, an increase of 19.6 percent year-over-year.
Take Japan as an example. Since its launch [in Japan] in July of 2023, Temu has seen its number of users grow at a rate of 2.2 million per month. In January 2024, its number of users in Japan reached 15.5 million, 52 percent of the combined average of the three major e-commerce platforms in Japan — Amazon, Rakuten Market, and Yahoo! Shopping — which is 29.7 million. The number of users on the clothing e-commerce platform SHEIN has also surpassed that of the well-known Japanese clothing e-commerce platform ZOZOTOWN. TikTok, with its millions of users in Japan, may soon become a big player in the e-commerce field as well.
According to Yonhap News Agency, the latest data released by South Korea’s statistical department shows that, in 2023, imports from China’s e-commerce platforms surged by 121.2 percent year-over-year. For the first time, China surpassed the United States to become South Korea’s largest source of e-commerce imports.
Source: Xinhua, February 23, 2024
http://www.xinhuanet.com/20240223/d2eff099b86441ba8f7f6f45377ef0bd/c.html
China Takes Steps to Promote Used Car Exports
To promote used car exports, China’s Ministry of Commerce and four other departments jointly issued a notice on February 5 regarding matters related to the export of used cars. On February 7, they released a “Notice on Further Improving the Practice of Used Car Exports” (the “Notice”), to implement used car export businesses in 10 pilot cities nationwide.
The Notice encourages localities to establish used car export bases, achieving efficient results by integrating functions such as showrooms, handling of transactions, maintenance, inspection and certification, customs clearance, support for exports, warehousing, logistics, and financial services. As after-sales service is the biggest challenge for the used car dealers, the Notice directed companies to establish overseas maintenance service systems through self-construction, resource sharing, or multi-channel cooperation. This means setting up additional after-sales service outlets overseas and ensuring a supply of spare parts through multiple channels. It supports automotive companies further expanding their international marketing networks and fully leveraging brand and channel advantages. It also encourages companies to establish public showroom and sales centers and overseas warehouses in key markets.
China’s customs data shows that the volume of China’s used car exports has repeatedly reached new highs since the used car export pilot launched in 2019. In 2021, China exported 15,000 used cars. This figure soared to 69,000 in 2022. As of 2023, used Chinese cars have been sold in more than 140 countries and regions worldwide. The main markets are the five Central Asian countries, Africa, and some Southeast Asian countries. Since 2022, Russia has also become an important market. Now, the Western and Eastern Europe markets are increasing significantly due to energy shortages; a considerable portion of the used cars exported from China are electric vehicles.
Source: Xinhua, February 27, 2024
http://www.xinhuanet.com/auto/20240227/bee6287a6d464b1faaf7b7cfd04fb1fa/c.html
China’s Central Banker: China Will Continue Promoting Currency Swaps with Other Countries
On March 27th, at the 2024 Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference, Pan Gongsheng, Governor of the People’s Bank of China, stated that the People’s Bank of China will continue to promote currency swaps and currency cooperation with Asian economies to maintain regional financial stability.
Currency swap agreements can not only promote the use of a country’s own currency in partner countries, but can also enable reduced reliance on the US dollar. China has signed agreements with ASEAN member states, Japan, and South Korea under the Chiang Mai Initiative. “Currently, the bilateral currency swap scale within ASEAN and the ASEAN+3 (China, Japan, South Korea) framework has exceeded 380 billion US dollars,” said Pan.
According to Pan, the People’s Bank of China has signed bilateral currency swap agreements with central banks or monetary authorities from 29 countries and regions, with a total currency swap scale exceeding 4 trillion Yuan (US$ 553.49 billion).
Source: VOA, March 27, 2024
https://www.voachinese.com/a/pboc-chief-seeks-to-deepen-currency-ties-with-asian-economies-20240327/7545500.html
Six Major Chinese Banks See Significant Decline in Mortgage Loans
Well-known Chinese news site Sina (NASDAQ: SINA) recently reported that, amid the “shock waves” of the real estate market downturn and early mortgage repayments, Chinese banks’ personal mortgage businesses continue to face pressure. By the end of 2023, the total mortgage loan balance of the six major state-owned banks was approximately RMB 26 trillion yuan (around US$3.66 trillion), a decrease of approximately RMB 500 billion yuan (around US$70.34 billion) from the end of the previous year.
Among the six major state-owned banks, the balance of personal housing loans of the five largest banks all decreased year-over-year. Only one of the six largest banks — the Postal Savings Bank of China — saw an increase. In terms of asset quality, five of the six major banks had suffered a year-over-year increase in non-performing mortgage loan ratios by the end of 2023. The Chinese central bank’s “Statistical Report on Loan Investment by Financial Institutions in 2023” showed that the balance of personal housing loans at the end of 2023 suffered an overall year-over-year decrease of 1.6 percent.
In response to the significant decrease in mortgage loans on their books, most banks have been intensifying their efforts to issue new mortgage loans. That being said, increasing early mortgage repayments in 2023 brought further pressure on outstanding mortgage loans and banks’ loan yields.
Source: Sina, April 8, 2024
https://finance.sina.com.cn/wm/2024-04-08/doc-inararwv6421091.shtml
China’s Imports and Exports Declined Sharply in March
Well-known Chinese news site NetEase (NASDAQ: NTES) recently reported that, according to Chinese customs data, China’s imports and exports both experienced sharp declines in March, far below market expectations. Export shipments fell 7.5 percent year-over-year, while imports also fell 1.9 percent year-over-year. Chinese policymakers are facing challenges as they try to shore up a fragile economic recovery.
Exports suffered their biggest drop since last August, well above the 2.3 percent decline forecasted by economists. Exports for the period January through February increased by 7.1 percent year-over-year.
Over the past year, China’s exporters experienced many difficulties due to weak overseas demand and a tightening global monetary environment. At this point, with the U.S. Federal Reserve and other developed countries showing no urgency regarding the need for interest rate cuts, Chinese manufacturers may continue to face challenges as they try to boost international sales. Analysts warned that Western concerns about overcapacity in certain Chinese industries [and the impact of such overcapacity on Western markets] could bring more trade barriers to China’s manufacturing sector.
China’s imports for March fell 1.9 percent year-over-year, compared with a growth of 3.5 percent in the previous two months, indicating weakness in domestic demand. Analysts do not believe China’s economy will fully recover any time soon, mainly because the crisis in the Chinese real estate industry has been going on for quite some time.
Global ratings agency Fitch recently downgraded China’s sovereign credit rating outlook to negative, citing risks to public finances as the country’s economy faces growing uncertainty during a shift to a new growth model. Structural flaws in China’s economy have reduced the effectiveness of its central bank’s monetary policy tools.
Source: NetEase, April 12, 2024
https://www.163.com/dy/article/IVJQBCIC055292RI.html
RFI Chinese: China Asks Telecom Operators to Phase Out Foreign Chips
Radio France Internationale (RFI) Chinese Edition recently reported that, people familiar with the matter said Chinese officials earlier this year directed the country’s largest telecom operators to phase out foreign processors at the heart of their telecom networks by 2027. This would be a hit to U.S. chip giants Intel and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology set the 2027 deadline in order to speed up the government’s efforts to stop using such core chips in its telecommunications infrastructure. Chinese regulators also ordered state-owned mobile operators to check whether “non-Chinese” semiconductors are commonly used in their networks and to draft a timetable for replacement.
In the past, efforts by the Chinese telecommunication industry to wean itself from dependence on foreign semiconductors was to be hampered by a lack of quality chips produced domestically. Now, the quality of domestic chips has improved and their performance has become more reliable.
Currently, U.S. chipmakers Intel and AMD supply most of the core processors used in networking equipment in China and globally; geopolitical concerns now cloud their future business prospects in China. In October of last year, China Telecom purchased approximately 4,000 artificial intelligence servers, 53 percent of which used Intel processors. According to tender documents, the rest of the AI servers use Huawei’s processors. In the past, Intel chips accounted for a much higher share of server procurements.
Source: RFI Chinese, April 12, 2024
https://tinyurl.com/ykpb26j6
Cheng Xiaonong: U.S.-China Strategic Relations Have Crystallized
{Editor’s Note: In a recent article titled “U.S.-China Strategic Relations Have Crystallized” published on Radio Free Asia, Continue reading