The per capita disposable income of China's first-tier cities such as Beijing and Shanghai inched closer to 80,000 yuan ($11,795) in 2022, and six other leading provinces surpassed the national average of 36,883 yuan, according to Global Times calculations based on statistics released by the provinces.
The assertion that the population drop will upend China's economic rise will prove to be American wishful thinking, and another try at 'China collapse' – a falsified theory the world has heard many times in the past 40 years.
Localities across China pressed the start button of the Year of the Rabbit with economic meetings chaired by leading government officials, plans emphasizing new projects build-up and letters to foreign-invested companies promising further openness.
In China, the world's largest auto market, the new-energy vehicle (NEV) sector has stepped up rapid development over recent years as the country vows to upgrade green transport, but there is still an unbalanced landscape in a big country with varied climate patterns and terrains.
With consumers rushing to South China's Hainan Province during the Spring Festival holidays, sales at duty-free stores in the popular tourist destination reached a new high of 2.57 billion yuan ($379 million), up 329 percent from the same period in 2019, official data showed on Sunday.
During the just-concluded Chinese New Year holidays, the first after China moved to resume normal operations at border ports, several major ports in Southwest China's Yunnan Province saw surging trade activities with various neighboring countries, including Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam, according to local officials and traders.
A spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council on Sunday confirmed that the Chinese mainland has registered or updated the registration information of 63 qualified companies from the island of Taiwan after verification.
Amid roaring machines and celebration ceremonies, factories in China's major industrial provinces resumed production on the first working day of the Year of the Rabbit on Saturday, a symbol of a good start for the country's economy in the first year after China further optimized its COVID response by downgrading the management of the virus.
The US has reportedly secured a deal with the Netherlands and Japan on chip export controls against China, using stepped-up pressure on its allies. However, experts said that the latest US move and more potential containment won't beat down China, as Chinese semiconductor firms are making all efforts to achieve breakthroughs in core technologies for self-reliance.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang presided over a State Council executive meeting on Saturday, calling for sustained efforts to grasp the current economic and social development work and promote the steady rebound of economic operations at the beginning of 2023.
For the second time this month, the US House of Representatives has passed a bill to curb President Joe Biden's ability to tap the nation's petroleum reserves - a measure that has already drawn a White House veto threat. While the division and polarization in US politics continues to escalate, what happened in the highest hall of "US democracy" has become a political farce, leaving the US economy as the ultimate victim.
The government of South China's Guangdong Province on Saturday held the High Quality Development Conference with over 25,000 attendees across the provincial range, aiming at boosting economic development for 2023.
More than 700 million parcels were collected and delivered during the just passed seven-day Spring Festival from January 21 to Friday, up 5.1 percent year-on-year and 192.9 percent compared with the same period in 2019, official data from the State Post Bureau showed on Saturday.
Digital yuan or e-CNY, a component of China's currency, played a major role in stimulating local consumption during the just-ended Spring Festival holidays, a traditional consumption peak season in China, as the digital form of the legal tender develops rapidly.
Beijing's tourism market has rebounded strongly during the Spring Festival holidays, returning to nearly 90 percent of the pre-COVID level, thanks to the optimized virus prevention measures.
Foreign direct investment (FDI) in Northwest China's Xinjiang region continued to improve last year, setting a new record and proving that a certain country's long-arm jurisdiction and crackdown against the region are failing, a Chinese expert said on Saturday.
China saw 225.63 million passenger trips made during the week-long Spring Festival holidays, or about 83.1% of 2019 levels, media reported on Saturday.
As the 7-day Spring Festival holidays are approaching to an end, multiple manufacturing hubs in China are going all out in cross-provincial recruitment with strengthened efforts and benefits in preparation for the upcoming production peak.
China's consumption posted a remarkable rebound during the 2023 Spring Festival, the most important holiday after the country optimized COVID-19 response in December last year, sending out an encouraging signal about the swift recovery of the world's second-largest economy, and that a vibrant Chinese economy will help lift the global economy out of the shadow of the epidemic.
Outbound travel bookings soared by 640 percent over the weeklong Spring Festival holidays, industry data showed Friday, as Chinese tourists celebrate the first unrestricted annual vacation since the COVID-19 epidemic erupted.
China's box office during the Spring Festival holidays (January 21-27, 2023) breached 6.8 billion yuan ($1 billion) as of 21:20 pm on Friday, surpassing 2022's 6.04 billion yuan mark, making this year's Spring Festival holiday the second highest-grossing to date, Chinese ticketing platform Maoyan showed.
Almost every city center in China was filled with a sea of people during the Spring Festival holidays in 2023, with long queues seen outside restaurants, malls and scenic spots. Fireworks were seen illuminating the sky in some Chinese cities. Traditional lion dances, dragon dances, temple fairs and many other Chinese New Year activities made a grand comeback.
China's State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council (SASAC) recently issued a notice asking all state-owned companies to ramp up measures to further secure energy supplies, as the country is dealing with a cold wave and potentially higher prices in the international market that are putting pressure on the supply side.
Israel's first ground station for monitoring satellites was inaugurated at Tel Aviv University (TAU), the Israel Space Agency (ISA) said recently.
Boosted by more signs that China's economic recovery is gaining traction, from surging stocks, hectic consumption during the Spring Festival holidays to the long-awaited tourism boom following optimization of COVID management, representatives of overseas commerce chambers are increasingly upbeat about the "re-energizing" of Chinese market, saying it would bring more benefits to their business in China.
A total of 308 million domestic trips were recorded during the 7-day Chinese New Year holidays (Jan 21-27), up 23.1% y-o-y. Domestic tourism revenues hit 375.84 billion yuan ($55.4 billion), up 30% y-o-y, said Ministry of Culture and Tourism on Friday.
World output growth is projected to decelerate from an estimated 3.0 percent in 2022 to 1.9 percent in 2023, while China's economic growth is forecast to accelerate to 4.8 percent this year, according to a UN report launched on Wednesday.
Outbound tourism bookings during the Spring Festival holiday has seen a boom following the country optimizing COVID-19 rules and is expected to resume pilot outbound group tours from February 6 with the outbound air tickets booking recorded a fourfold increase on year-on-year basis.
Chinese online travel agencies and scenic spots have observed a significant recovery with air tickets, hotel booking and tourists visits during the 2023 Spring Festival holidays exceeding 2019 levels as consumer spending rebounded more than expected after China optimized its COVID-19 prevention measure.
Heated competition for Spring Festival visitors has resumed at Chinese scenic spots, shopping malls and cinemas, following the end of a three-year lull caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The box office during the7-day Chinese Spring Festival holidays has hit 2.5 billion yuan ($369 million) as of 5 pm on Monday, the third day of the holidays, after adding 1.8 billion yuan on Sunday, a vivid display of the fast recovery of the movie sector that is set to shrug off the pandemic-induced ebb.
Chinese companies in foreign trade have ramped up efforts in making business trips under governments' support before and during the Chinese Spring Festival holidays, as a way to meet face-to-face with their foreign clients while securing more deals for 2023.
China's tourism industry sees a strong rebound in both domestic and overseas market, with numbers of visitors to some major tourist sites reaching a peak since the epidemic, as the country celebrates the Chinese Spring Festival holidays lasting from January 21 to 27, the first long holiday since the optimized epidemic control and the reopening for traveling.
It is estimated that China's electricity consumption - a barometer of economic activity - will reach 9.15 trillion kilowatt-hours in 2023 in normal climate conditions, up 6 percent year-on-year, a report issued by China Electricity Council showed on Sunday, being fueled by a full-fledged economic recovery that drives up electricity demand.
In 2022, the US Federal Reserve aggressively raised interest rates and shrank its balance sheet, kicking off the fastest and steepest monetary tightening cycle in 40 years. Although the Chinese yuan exchange rate has undergone some adjustment and volatility, it has smoothly transitioned to two-way fluctuation now.
The box office of the seven-day 2023 Chinese Lunar New Year holidays – the first Spring Festival holidays after China optimized its COVID-19 response –exceeded 1.8 billion yuan ($265 million) on Sunday morning, as people's enthusiasm for movies saw an expected increase.
China has continued to boost financial opening-up for foreign firms, as the country's top securities regulator approved applications for US-based JPMorgan and UK-based Standard Chartered to expand businesses in the Chinese market.
Zhoushan, East China's Zhejiang Province, a major Chinese port city, is gearing up for an increase in trade flow, with local port customs authorities working around the clock in preparation for the arrival of more cargo ships during the Spring Festival holidays, the first after China optimized its anti-epidemic measures.
As more signs of recovery are emerging in the Chinese economy, economists have expressed optimism and confidence toward the nation's economic outlook in 2023, predicting that recent rapid recovery will be further boosted by various factors such as increased consumption, stabilized employment and continuous opening-up.
Recently, market expectations for China's economic recovery from the impact of COVID-19 have been growing. The net inflow of capital into China's A-share market has continued to rise, and many international institutions have also raised their forecasts for China's economic growth, all indicating that investors and analysts are generally optimistic about rebounding China's economic growth this year.
China's State Council, the cabinet, approved plans to establish China-Indonesia and China-Philippines demonstration parks for economic and trade innovation and development in East China's Fujian Province, according to the website of the central government on Thursday, as the relations between China and the regional countries are growing stronger.
Talks between Chinese Vice Premier Liu He and US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen in Zurich this week would have lasted longer if the US official hadn't needed to catch a flight, according to exclusive details revealed on Thursday by Yuyuan Tantian, a social media account affiliated with state broadcaster CCTV.
China's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (MOA) met on Thursday with soybean industry participants, urging them to boost domestic cultivation, production and sales to further stabilize supplies of soybean, an important strategic good, as the nation expects a market rebound.
A divided Washington is threatening to push the global economy to the edge of a cliff, as the US' galloping national debt edged closer to the $31.4 trillion statutory ceiling on Thursday, Chinese experts said on Thursday.
The hustle and bustle of crowds has returned to restaurants, hotels and malls across China, as the nation heads into the first Spring Festival holidays after downgrading its management of COVID-19.
The Maldives conducted a vibrant ceremony on Wednesday for the first Chinese tourists to visit since 2020, after China optimized its epidemic prevention policy and allowed outbound travel to resume in an orderly manner.
China's consumer market remained generally stable in 2022 with retail sales of nearly 44 trillion yuan ($6.49 trillion) despite the epidemic, and more measures are underway to boost consumption this year, according to the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM).
China's Ministry of Transport (MOT) has said that it has nothing to do with a new transport platform called Qiangguo Jiaotong, according to media reports on Thursday, as the new app sparked widespread attention online.
The surge in the sales of Chinese-made EVs in the Australian market is a microcosm of the cooperation potential between the two sides in the field of new energy. Strengthened cooperation with China can help promote Australia's energy transition.
The restoration of the railway line between Walvis Bay and Arandis in Namibia, with a total length of nearly 110 kilometers, by a Chinese construction company was completed on Tuesday, Xinhua News Agency reported.
Shanghai-based Juneyao Air and Spring Airlines restarted flights to Thailand on Wednesday. Demand was strong instantly, and the flights were nearly full on the first day.
Chilean cherry exports to China reached a new high in the 2022-23 season, Chilean industry officials said on Wednesday, predicting “favorable” conditions for 2023.
With the meeting between Chinese Vice Premier Liu He and US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Wednesday in Zurich, the ice between the world's two largest economies showed another sign of breaking, as the world's two largest economies attempt to rekindle their relationship that has grown tense in recent months over technology access and other issues.
When China moved to optimize its COVID-19 response measures in early December and infections surged, foreign media outlets unleashed a tsunami of misinformation, fear-mongering and slander against China's anti-epidemic strategy over the past three years and its impact on the economy. Some overseas financial institutions even slashed forecast for China's economic growth in 2022.
Japan has shown the tendency to blindly follow Washington's "decoupling" push, especially on the US chip ban, which is actually a sign that it is losing the ability to balance external cooperation.
Editor's Note: This year marks the 10th anniversary of the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a global cooperation platform that demonstrates China's vision and provides solutions for the reformation of the global governance system and other multifaceted challenges. Reflecting on the development of the BRI over the last decade, there has been no shortage of evidence demonstrating its success, a momentum that relentless Western crackdowns and smears were unable to curtail.
China will support the healthy development of the property market, which is still a pillar industry for the economy, said Chinese Vice Premier Liu He on Tuesday. The remarks underscore China's efforts to stabilize the domestic real estate sector, which will make a more sustainable contribution to the economy after regulation, analysts said.
Major Chinese ports, ranging from Ningbo Zhoushan Port in East China's Zhejiang Province to Qingdao Port in Shandong Province, are putting more focus on domestic consumption amid a rebound following China's optimized epidemic control.
The relationship between China and the rest of the world is changing. With strategic long-term targets designed to modernize its economy and society, China has transformed its economy into one with an eye-catching high-tech industry and become a nation with global influence. China's economic miracle both fascinates and, at times concerns people around the world. With uncertainty in the global economic arena, trade disputes are making daily headlines, protectionism is on the rise in the West, and geopolitical tensions are becoming more heated. The way ahead is uncertain, and we must stay rational and sober to adjust to the uncertainty.
China will allocate new funding under the central government's budget around the Spring Festival holidays to support the construction of key basic infrastructure projects this year, especially information networks in remote regions in the central and western areas, an official of China's top economic planner said on Wednesday.
French wines, Belgian chocolate, Chilean cherries and Malaysian durian are among the products finding their way into Chinese shopping carts ahead of the Spring Festival which falls on January 22 this year.
China's agricultural science and technology innovation entered the world's forefront in 2022, with agricultural technology' contribution in total farm output reaching 62.4 percent, another solid step toward self-reliance, a senior official said on Wednesday.
China's paid-in foreign direct investment (FDI) in 2022 hit $189.13 billion, a year-on-year growth of 8 percent in US dollar terms, maintaining a stable growth, data from the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) showed on Wednesday.
Foreign enterprises and international experts believe that China's optimization of COVID-19 response, which expands the flows of people, will help activate the country's economic vitality and potential, and bring important benefits to world recovery and growth.
Although China's economy showed clear signs of bottoming-out in December, the policymakers ought to firm up the foundation to usher in an eye-catching recovery in the first half of 2023, by churning out more pro-growth supportive fiscal and financial policies so long as consumer price index remains stable.
China on Tuesday reported a 3-percent GDP growth for 2022. Considering what officials call “many unexpected” negative factors last year, the growth rate is a hard-won result for an economy as large as China's. Still, many foreign media outlets seized the slower growth rate to smear China's economic development and anti-COVID efforts over the past three years, while completely ignoring the global downturn and sharp declines in Western economies. As these charts show, China's response to the pandemic is much more effective in both protecting public health as well as minimizing economic losses.
Chinese Vice Premier Liu He on Tuesday offered a comprehensive view on China's economy and its development strategies during a speech at the World Economic Forum's (WEF) annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, expressing confidence in an overall improvement of China's economy in 2023 and reiterating China's determination in promoting an all-round opening-up and multilateral cooperation.
Japanese airlines told the Global Times that they are looking forward to resuming travel between China and Japan as soon as possible, adding that the current entry restrictions are only temporary and that travel connections between the two countries will be closer than before.
Before a visit to the US by Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte on Tuesday, top Dutch trade official said the Netherlands "will not summarily accept new US restrictions on exporting chip-making technology to China," and is consulting with "European and Asian allies," Reuters reported.
At Dapukou terminal, Zhoushan Port in East China's Zhejiang Province, a large cargo ship with a capacity of thousands of containers was waiting for cargo to be loaded before heading to its final destination in western Africa.
China will speed up the construction of 1,400 major projects confirmed under the central enterprises' 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25), according to a spokesperson of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, as China continues to strengthen investment stabilization measures to fuel economic growth this year.
China's business climate during the fourth quarter of 2022 won high praise from most foreign enterprises, said the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, as it vowed to initiate promotions for foreign enterprises in China to enhance their global competitiveness.
The annual output of industrial robots in Shanghai would have reached more than 75,000 units in 2022, a year-on-year increase of six percent, becoming an important pillar for intelligent manufacturing in the city, government officials said on Tuesday.
Year-to-date passenger traffic at the Sanya Phoenix International Airport in South China's Hainan Province was estimated to top 1 million by Tuesday, the fastest growth since 2021, airport data showed, fresh evidence of the economy's swift rebound from the coronavirus.
China made new advances in high-quality development in 2022 despite a series of domestic and external challenges, with the hard won high-tech industrial output and infrastructure investment growth becoming a highlight last year, which helped shore up the fundamentals of the overall economy, official data showed on Tuesday.
China's retail sales, a major driver of economic growth, trimmed 0.2 percent in 2022 due to the impact of COVID-19, but domestic consumption is expected to rebound this year with improving growth prospects and rising income.
Beijing Daxing International Airport, the second air hub in the capital city, resumed its first outbound overseas flight services Tuesday morning after a nearly three-year pandemic induced suspension.
China's GDP expanded 3 percent year-on-year to 121 trillion yuan ($17.93 trillion) in 2022, maintaining a stable expansion as the world's second-largest economy navigated uncharted waters and surmounted headwinds - ranging from the coronavirus and geopolitical tensions to interest rate hikes and waning overseas demand - with an overwhelming fighting spirit..
China's Ministry of Culture and Tourism (MCT) on Monday announced it will resume accepting applications for commercial performances involving people from the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Macao Special Administrative Region and the island of Taiwan, starting from February 16.
The CR400BF-GZ train, the smartest and most frost-resistant Fuxing bullet train model, was deployed in Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province on Monday. It's the coldest and highest region the model has been used in so far. The Fuxing bullet train has a maximum speed of 350 kilometers per hour.
China's Ministry of Finance will further strengthen management of specialized funds targeting the prevention and control of COVID-19, including increasing support for rural areas and medical workers, establishing a “green channel” for medical supply procurement along with other measures, the ministry said in a notice on Monday.
Enterprises surveyed by China's trade promotion agency have said that the implementation of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) has increased their customs clearance efficiency and reduced costs. More importantly, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are now able to participate in international trade more conveniently through e-commerce under the RCEP.
With new leadership in the US House of Representatives, a clash between Democrats and Republicans over the debt ceiling faces a new round of crisis.
Chinese provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions have revealed their GDP growth targets for 2023, most aiming for economic expansion of 5-6 percent this year after the government ended stringent coronavirus management measures and reopened borders.
As thousands of political, economic and social leaders from around the world gather in the Swiss resort of Davos for the annual conference of the World Economic Forum (WEF), which kicked off in person on Monday for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic broke out three years ago, a slew of challenges confronts the global economy, including high inflation, geopolitical tensions, as well as an escalating assault led by the US on the economic globalization agenda that Davos epitomizes.
Farmers buy large-type tractors in an agricultural machinery market in Liaocheng, East China's Shandong Province, on January 16, 2023, preparing for the upcoming spring farming. China's grain output totaled 686.53 billion kilograms in 2022, setting a new record.
The prices of many medical products such as N95 masks and oximeters have fallen back to normal as supply and demand get back into balance after China's recent COVID-19 infections wave fades.
China had registered 4.212 million valid patents as of the end of 2022, making it the first country to pass the threshold of 3 million. The number manifests that the nation has been ramping up efforts to become a global innovational power.
Hotel occupancy rates in Sanya, South China's Hainan Province have now reached 85 percent, and local hotels are more than 90 percent booked for the coming Spring Festival, according to an official on Monday, as the tropical resort quickly regains luster following the country's policy shift on pandemic response.
Didi Global, a ride-hailing giant in China, said on Monday that domestic cybersecurity authorities have allowed it to resume new user registrations effective immediately, a move signaling its more than one-year cybersecurity probe is winding down.
Traders and producers in East China's Zhejiang Province, a barometer of the nation's and the world's trade situation, are gearing up for a potentially bullish year as China, after a three-year tough battle against COVID-19, lifts restrictions and strives for an economic recovery.
Hengzhou, South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, a renowned production base for jasmine flowers, has turned the small flower into a prosperous industry, supplying about 60 percent of the world's jasmine flowers and jasmine tea.
Zhengzhou, Central China's Henan Province plans to issue 20 million yuan ($2.97 million) awarding bonus to companies including Foxconn Technology Group and other key enterprises to stablize labor supply and production during the coming Spring Festival period.
China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) issued a total of 15 measures to further stabilize growth and adjust structure of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), Xinhua News Agency reported on Sunday.
China International Water & Electric Corp (CWE), a subsidiary of China Three Gorges Corp, has been transferred in its entirety to China Communications Construction Co (CCCC). The move involving resource integration will bolster the core competitiveness of China's centrally administered state-owned enterprises (SOEs), a senior official said.
China registered more than 70,000 domestic passenger flights during the first week of the 2023 Spring Festival travel rush, known as chunyun, a 40-day period starting from January 7. It reached 80 percent of the pre-pandemic level, data from monitoring platforms showed.
China's top economic planner said it will tighten supervision of iron ore pricing and crack down on illegal activities, to keep the market stable, a move that signals authorities are ramping up efforts to maintain price stability after the global market rallied on the nation's reopening from pandemic.
The tropical and sunny Sanya in South China's Hainan Province, one of the country's top winter destinations, is back in focus, with long lines of tourists and packed vehicles pointing to a rapid rebounding of tourism and consumption.
With Federal Reserve remaining strongly committed to lowering inflation by restraining economic growth, equity investors around the world will continue to be perplexed, scratching their heads in 2023.
East China's Shandong Province, an economic powerhouse in the country, said during the annual “two sessions” held by the province that it is set to build a world-class ports cluster in 2023, expanding routes of ocean shipping, Xinhua News Agency reported on Sunday.