DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

REUTERS/Tingshu WangHONG KONG/BEIJING/SHANGHAI, March 3 (Reuters) - As unprecedented protests against China's zero-COVID policies escalated in November, Li Qiang, the man recently elevated to No.2 on the ruling Communist Party's Politburo Standing Committee, seized the moment. Meanwhile, some local-level party workers and healthcare officials were grappling with growing challenges in implementing the zero-COVID policy. "From my perspective, it's not that we set out to relax the zero-COVID policy, it's more that we at the local level were simply not able to enforce the zero-COVID policy anymore," the official said. In mid-November, when Xi was still in Southeast Asia, he ordered Chinese authorities to "unswervingly" execute the zero-COVID policy, said two of the people, after which some cities retightened curbs. Xi's vacillating led to renewed debate on COVID policy among top leaders during mid to late November, one of these people and another person said.

☆ Factbox: What to look for as China kicks off its annual session of parliament
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-02 | by ( Laurie Chen | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Besides meeting annually to deliberate legislation and appoint government personnel, it oversees the State Council, China's cabinet. Its top body, the roughly 170-member NPC Standing Committee, meets more frequently to pass legislation. The Standing Committee also has the power to amend semiautonomous Hong Kong's mini-constitution, known as the Basic Law. The NPC will also appoint top government positions including vice president, NPC chair, vice premiers, state councillors, head of the Supreme Court and ministers. China will announce its central and local government budgets, military spending budget and economic growth target on the opening day of the NPC.

[1/4] A worker walks across a construction site in the Central Business District, ahead of the opening of the National People's Congress (NPC) in Beijing, China, February 28, 2023. Nearly 3,000 delegates will gather in the Great Hall of the People west of Tiananmen Square for the first National People's Congress (NPC) of the post-zero-COVID era, although some precautions remain including testing and quarantine for journalists. It will also discuss Xi's plans for an "intensive" and "wide-ranging" re-organisation of state and Communist Party entities, state media reported on Tuesday, after a three-day meeting of the party's central committee. China's economy grew just 3% last year, one of its worst showings in nearly half a century. "We will strive to spur growth and have policy tools to do that, mainly by channelling money into big projects," Xu Hongcai, deputy director of the economic policy commission at the state-backed China Association of Policy Science, told Reuters.

☆ Xi's planned revival of Chinese financial watchdog exerts more party control
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-01 | by ( Joe Cash | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

BEIJING, March 1 (Reuters) - Plans by China's Communist Party to revive a high-level economic watchdog after two decades signal President Xi Jinping push to increase oversight of the financial sector, analysts say, part of a wider tightening of control by Xi and the party. "Through the CFWC, Xi and his allies could more rapidly roll out a reshuffle to replace the remaining legacy technocrats with people more loyal to them," he said. China's financial sector is overseen by the People's Bank of China (PBOC), the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, the China Securities Regulatory Commission, with the cabinet's Financial Stability and Development Committee at the top. Under the new proposed structure, the party would take on a direction-setting role for the economy and regulatory bodies. "But this could also lead to policies replacing some market forces, which may not be ideal for financial liberalisation", she said.

☆ Meet the 4 men tipped to run China’s economy
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-01 | by ( Laura He | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

Hong Kong CNN —The team of Communist Party officials running China’s economy is about to get a major makeover. They include the four men tipped to manage the world’s second biggest economy: Li Qiang as premier, Ding Xuexiang as executive vice premier, He Lifeng as vice premier and Zhu Hexin as the new central bank chief. That puts the 63-year-old in line to succeed Premier Li Keqiang when he steps down during the upcoming congress. Li would be the first premier since the Mao era not to have previously worked at the State Council, China’s cabinet, as vice premier, analysts say. Stringer/ICHPL Imaginechina/AP/FileThe 68-year-old would succeed Vice Premier Liu He, who led China’s negotiations with the United States during trade talks in 2018 and 2019.

☆ Enel Peru says state-run Chinese power firm eying possible purchase
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-24 | by ( Marco Aquino | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LIMA, Feb 24 (Reuters) - The Peruvian unit of Italy's biggest power utility, Enel (ENEI.MI), said on Friday that state-owned China Southern Power Grid is carrying out "due diligence" on the local unit for a possible purchase offer on its energy distribution operations. Bloomberg reported earlier on Friday that the Chinese firm is weighing a possible bid for Enel's distribution business in Peru, which it said could be valued at some $3 billion. The Guangzhou-based power company's owner, state-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council (SASAC), did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Part of that announcement included the plan to put up for sale Enel Peru's distribution and generation assets, which the state-controlled firm said was already under way at the time. On Friday, shares of Enel Distribucion Peru rose 25% on Lima's main stock exchange.

Hong Kong CNN —China will fully reopen borders with its special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macao next week, in what is expected to be a major boost for the economies of the two cities. From Monday, travelers entering mainland China from Hong Kong or Macao will no longer need to provide proof of negative Covid tests, as long as they have not traveled abroad in the previous week, the State Council’s Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office said in a Friday statement. Hong Kong is a major international financial center, and, before the pandemic, Macao was the world’s casino capital. Over the past three years, limited cross-border travel to mainland China has been listed as the top concern for businesses across the city, according to industry groups. Businesses began seeing some relief last month, when residents of Hong Kong and mainland China were permitted to resume two-way, quarantine-free travel.

☆ China's cities are struggling to pay their bills from three years of Covid and a real estate crash
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( Laura He | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

Rolling lockdowns seriously dented household incomes, leading many to reduce spending, which in turn resulted in less tax revenue for local governments. “China’s runaway local debt poses a serious threat to the country’s overall economic health and will weigh heavily on China’s still-nascent recovery,” said Singleton. Debt that is backed by local governments but which doesn’t show up on their balance sheets could be much bigger. That’s more than 20% higher than the estimate of 53 trillion yuan made by Goldman Sachs in 2021. Their debt squeeze could pose a serious threat to China’s financial system, particularly to small regional banks.

☆ Tourism is roaring back in China. But the $6 trillion consumer market is digging itself out of a deep slump
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-30 | by ( Evelyn Cheng | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

He's hopeful business improves this year – and allows Rêver to recoup the roughly 35% in revenue it lost last year. Within a retail sales slump of 0.2% to 43.97 trillion yuan ($6.28 trillion), catering sales dropped by a steeper 6.3%. He expects 7% year-on-year growth in retail sales. Hainan's recovery plansHainan, a tropical province aiming to be a duty free shopping destination, announced a goal for 10% growth in retail sales this year. That's after its retail sales fell by 9.2% last year.

☆ China encourages foreign capital to set up R&D centres in the country
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-18 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

BEIJING, Jan 18 (Reuters) - China issued a notice on Wednesday to encourage foreign investment to set up research and development (R&D) centres in the country, according to a statement by the State Council, or the cabinet. China also encourages financial institutions to offer financial support to those centres and will support legal cross-border R&D data flows, said the statement. Reporting by Ellen Zhang and Kevin Yao; Editing by Kim CoghillOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Putin is a tyrant who wants to enslave Ukraine, Poland's president says
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-17 | by ( Holly Ellyatt | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a news conference after a meeting of the State Council on youth policy in Moscow, Russia, December 22, 2022. Sergey Guneev | Sputnik | ReutersPoland's president, Andrzej Duda, has slammed his Russian counterpart, saying Vladimir Putin is behaving like a colonialist. "Vladimir Putin wants to enslave Ukraine, he wants to expand his regime across the Ukrainian territory, [to] take away Ukrainians' freedom. Polish President Andrzej Duda and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky shake hands and hug during their press conference on August 23, 2022 in Kyiv, Ukraine. Or do we think that the free world can progress and every country has the right to self-determine?"

☆ Factbox: How China is seeking to boost its falling birth rate
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/3] An elderly person stands outside a house amid snowfall in Beijing, China January 12, 2023. ONE-CHILD POLICY- China implemented a one-child policy from 1980 to 2015 in response to government concerns about the social and economic consequences of continued rapid population growth. - The policy, which limited families to one child, was strictly enforced with violators fined and mothers often forced to have abortions. - Shenzhen, a city in southern China, gives couples having a third child or more an annual allowance of over 6,000 yuan ($890) until the child turn three. ($1 = 6.7044 Chinese yuan)Reporting by Farah Master and the Beijing newsroom; editing by Edwina GibbsOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ China to allow Didi apps back online, in latest sign of regulatory thaw, sources say
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-13 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

A logo for Chinese ride-hailing platform Didi is illuminated outside company headquarters on Jan. 21, 2022 in Hangzhou, China. Shen Longquan | Visual China Group | Getty ImagesChinese authorities are set to allow Didi Global's ride-hailing and other apps back on domestic app stores as soon as next week, five sources told Reuters, in yet another signal that their two-year regulatory crackdown on the technology sector is ending. Didi has been awaiting authorities' approval to resume new user registrations and downloads of its 25 banned apps in China as a key step to resume normal business since its regulatory troubles started in mid-2021. The one-week-long holiday period in China would help Didi start to attract new clients for the business and work towards bringing it back to normal, added two of the sources. China's central bank will step up support for private firms as part of steps to shore up the economy, while easing a crackdown on tech companies, Guo Shuqing, Communist party chief of the People's Bank of China, told state-owned CCTV on Sunday.

[1/2] The app logo of Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi is seen reflected on its navigation map displayed on a mobile phone in this illustration picture taken July 1, 2021. Didi has been awaiting authorities' approval to resume new user registrations and downloads of its 25 banned apps in China as a key step to resume normal business since its regulatory troubles started in mid-2021. A lifting of the ban on Didi apps would come as Chinese policymakers seek to restore private sector confidence and count on the technology industry to help spur economic activity that has been ravaged by the COVID-19 pandemic. The delay in the return of the apps had cast a shadow over Didi's business plans. That deal is primarily subject to the apps' resumption for official announcement, said the two sources.

HONG KONG/BEIJING, Jan 6 (Reuters) - China is in talks with Pfizer Inc (PFE.N) to secure a licence that will allow domestic drugmakers to manufacture and distribute a generic version of the U.S. firm's COVID-19 antiviral drug Paxlovid in China, three sources told Reuters. In February last year, China approved Paxlovid, which was supposed to be largely available via hospitals, to treat high-risk patients in several provinces. Pfizer last month reached an agreement to export Paxlovid to China through a local company to make the medicine more widely available. A Pfizer spokesperson said the company is actively collaborating with Chinese authorities and all stakeholders to secure an adequate supply of Paxlovid in China. That licence does not allow the companies to sell generic Paxlovid in China.

"More fundamental, and more subtle and more important is the social contract and social trust in China. COVID CZAROver the past three years, Vice Premier Sun, 72, has been the face of China's COVID fight, a mother-like figure who has executed Xi's zero-COVID policy with a firm hand. In April this year, Sun rushed to Shanghai as the city went under lockdown, according to state media reports. During the Shanghai lockdown, while also on an inspection tour, Sun was bombarded by pleas from residents shouting from their windows: "No more rice! How the current infections are tackled remain a key near-term challenge to COVID czars.

☆ Lawyers exit Hong Kong as they face campaign of intimidation
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-29 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +18 min

The event that precipitated his hasty departure, Vidler said, was the appearance of articles in the state-backed media in Hong Kong about him. “This was in my view state-sponsored intimidation and harassment,” said Vidler, whose wife and children later left Hong Kong. One Hong Kong solicitor who has relocated to England told Reuters that she knew of at least 80 Hong Kong lawyers who had moved to Britain since the security law was imposed in June 2020. Another lawyer, now living in Australia, estimated that several dozen Hong Kong lawyers had moved there. Mainland officials have long sought influence over these two influential bodies, according to senior Hong Kong lawyers.

☆ New sanctions starting to bite Russia's economy as Moscow admits deficit impact
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-27 | by ( Elliot Smith | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a news conference after a meeting of the State Council on youth policy in Moscow, Russia, December 22, 2022. The latest round of Western sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine are beginning to pinch the country's economy. However, Moscow should be able to finance the shortfall through domestic bond issuance and its rainy day fund, officials have suggested. The 27 countries of the EU also agreed in June to ban the purchase of Russian crude oil from Dec. 5. "High-frequency data show that Russian oil exports have fallen since the sanctions were introduced and the spread between Brent crude oil prices over Urals oil prices widened to a six-month high [last] week."

☆ Putin says Russia is ready to negotiate over war in Ukraine
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-25 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a news conference after a meeting of the State Council on youth policy in Moscow, Russia, December 22, 2022. Russia is ready to negotiate with all parties involved in the war in Ukraine but Kyiv and its Western backers have refused to engage in talks, President Vladimir Putin said in an interview aired on Sunday. "We are ready to negotiate with everyone involved about acceptable solutions, but that is up to them — we are not the ones refusing to negotiate, they are," Putin told Rossiya 1 state television in the interview. An adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Putin needed to return to reality and acknowledge that it was Russia that did not want any negotiations. "Russia single-handedly attacked Ukraine and is killing citizens," Mykhailo Podolyak said on Twitter.

☆ China steps up support for private sector to boost Covid-hit economy
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-19 | by ( Laura He | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Hong Kong CNN —Beijing has vowed to go all out next year to save its Covid-hit economy by boosting consumption and loosening control over private industry, including the struggling tech and property sectors. Covid infections are surging in China after leaders unexpectedly eased its restrictive Covid policy earlier this month. Stabilizing economic growth is the top priority for 2023, according to an official readout following the conclusion of the Central Economic Work Conference (CEWC), a key annual meeting of top leaders, which ended Friday. “We need to encourage and support the private sector economy and private enterprise in terms of policy and public opinion,” the statement said. A shopping mall is decorated with rabbit stickers to welcome the Lunar New Year, the Year of the Rabbit, on December 10, 2022 in Beijing, China.

☆ China's economy faltered before major Covid policy shift, retail sales and unemployment data show
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Laura He | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

Retail sales declined 5.9% in November from a year ago, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. It was the worst contraction in retail spending since May, when widespread Covid lockdowns, including in the country’s richest city Shanghai, pummeled the economy. Property sales by value plummeted by more than 26%. Last week, customs data showed the country’s exports contracted 8.7% in November from a year ago, the worst performance since February 2020. China’s economy has been battered by its stringent zero-Covid policy and persistent property woes this year.

☆ China cracks down on drug price gouging amid fears of COVID spike
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

China announced 10 measures on Wednesday that loosened key parts of President Xi Jinping's signature zero-COVID policy, in a dramatic pivot toward economic reopening. But concerns are increasing of a spike in infections as people scramble for cough medicines, flu drugs and masks. China's State Administration for Market Regulation admonished against price gouging in anti-COVID products, citing the need to better protect human lives and health. In a warning letter posted on Friday, the watchdog banned activities including price inflation, collusion, price discrimination, misleading propaganda and hoarding. In addition, they must not hoard anti-pandemic supplies that are in short supply, or spread word of price hikes to disrupt market order, the watchdog said.

☆ China Scraps Most Testing, Quarantine Requirements in Covid-19 Policy Pivot
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-07 | by ( Selina Cheng | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

HONG KONG—China took another step away from its stringent Covid-19 controls Wednesday, easing quarantine and testing requirements and curtailing the power of local officials to shut down entire city blocks and raise barriers to domestic travel. The announcement from the State Council adds further evidence of a faster-than-expected pivot by Beijing away from controls that have grown increasingly unpopular and costly—and which failed to prevent the country’s worst and most widespread Covid outbreak in November. The policy shift follows mass demonstrations last month against the pandemic rules that were the biggest that China had seen in decades.

☆ China eases some of its Covid restrictions, in significant step toward reopening
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-07 | by ( Jessie Yeung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

CNS/AFP/Getty ImagesSince early in the pandemic, China has used health codes on mobile phones to track individuals’ health statuses. Residents line up for Covid tests in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, China on December 1. Schools with Covid cases can continue “normal teaching and living,” as long as they designate certain “risk areas” with control measures. Since early in the pandemic, China has required a prescription and negative Covid test to buy these. Some experts have warned that a broader reopening inevitably brings health risks, especially to those vulnerable groups.

☆ Conditions for China to downgrade its management of COVID-19 maturing - state media
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-05 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Thomas PeterBEIJING, Dec 5 (Reuters) - Conditions for China to downgrade its management of COVID-19 as a serious contagious disease improving as the coronavirus weakens, state media outlet Yicai reported, among the first to float the idea. Category A diseases in China include bubonic plague and cholera, while SARS, AIDS and anthrax fall under Category B. Infectious diseases such as COVID-19 that have strong pathogenicity, a high fatality rate and strong infectivity are classified as Class A or Class B but managed as Class A. COVID-19 could be downgraded to Category B management or even Category C, the expert told Yicai. Any adjustment to the management of infectious diseases by the National Health Commission, China's top health authority, requires the approval of the State Council, or cabinet.

Search resuls for: "The State Council"

25 mentions found