SwedCham China Insights for the Week of May 1 - May 5 , 2023

Top news of the week:

China to speed up high-quality development, deepen opening-up in economic work

May 1, 2023

A high-level meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, chaired by General Secretary Xi Jinping, noted that China’s economy emphasized the need to comprehensively deepen reform and expand high-level opening-up. Attracting foreign investment should be placed in a more important position, it said, adding that the basic market of foreign trade and investment should stabilize.

China’s digital economy a new growth engine to drive modernization: report

May 2, 2023

China’s internet users hit 1.067 billion as 75.6 percent of the country’s population has access to the internet, according to the latest report released by Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC). The report said the size of the country’s digital economy was 50.2 trillion yuan (about $7.25 trillion) in 2022, ranking second in the world. China has built up 2.312 million 5G base stations and reached 561 million 5G users, accounting for more than 60 percent of the world’s total number of users.

HKSAR economy rebounds 2.7% in Q1, back to growth

May 3, 2023

The economy of Hong Kong SAR grew by 2.7 percent year on year in the first quarter of 2023, reversing a four-quarter-long contraction last year, according to official data announced on May 2.

Chinese FM to visit Pakistan, attend China-Afghanistan-Pakistan FMs’ Dialogue

May 4, 2023

Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Qin Gang will visit Pakistan on May 5 and 6 and attend the China-Afghanistan-Pakistan Foreign Ministers’ Dialogue in Pakistan, foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning announced on May 4.

Vice President Han Zheng to attend coronation of Britain’s King Charles

May 5, 2023

Vice President Han Zheng will attend the coronation of Britain’s King Charles III in London on May 6, China’s Foreign Ministry announced on May 4. He will also visit Portugal and the Netherlands from May 7 to 12, the ministry added.

Insight of the week:

Holidays spending during the International Workers’ Day holiday has surged past pre-pandemic levels for the first time in three years, in a sign the country’s travelers have fully emerged from the depths of Covid-related restrictions. Travelers made 274 million domestic trips during the Workers’ Day holiday, up 71% from a year ago and 19% higher than 2019, according to data from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. Revenue from domestic tourism reached 148 billion yuan (USD 21 billion), up 129% from a year earlier and slightly higher than 2019. China’s outbound tourism has also experienced a new boom. Data from Alibaba’s travel branch Fliggy shows that orders for outbound trips during the Workers’ Day holiday increased by 200 percent compared to this year’s Spring Festival. Another leading travel platform Trip.com Group, formerly known as Ctrip, also reported that during the five-day holiday, outbound travel orders increased nearly 700 percent from the same period of last year, with the number of outbound air tickets and hotel orders surging by nearly 900 percent and 450 percent, respectively. The just-ended holiday has injected new impetus into the rapid revival of the nation’s economy with a strong recovery of the tourism and consumer market.