China has released 19 fresh professions to keep pace with demand of new quality productive forces, according to the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security (MHRSS) on Wednesday. Observers said that the new professions hint that job seekers should be more open to adjust to the changing environment. Also, young elderly (generally referring to age between 65 and 74) who are well educated can explore the possibility of transitioning into a career in digital and intelligent technologies as a way to adapt to the ageing society.
The 19 new professions include cloud-based intelligent operations and maintenance personnel, generative artificial intelligence system application staff, and user growth operation specialists, as well as 28 new job categories such as live recruitment specialists. These new jobs have been included in the National Occupational Classification (NOC).
The emergence of new professions reflects the new changes and trends in China's economic and social development, meeting the new needs of production and life, and providing laborers with more employment choices.
Over half of the 19 new professions released are closely related to new quality productive forces. Among them are generative artificial intelligence system application staff, intelligent connected vehicle testers, intelligent manufacturing system maintenance personnel, and industrial internet operations and maintenance personnel.
Other new positions nurtured by the digital economy are online anchors and user growth operation specialists.
The release of the new occupations came at a moment when the governments and social forces are pouring in policies to stabilize employment, and rolling out more targeted policies to boost employment.
In June, the country's surveyed urban unemployment rate stood at 5 percent, with the employment situation remaining generally stable, according to the MHRSS.
China has set an annual target of creating more than 12 million new urban jobs this year. It also aimed to keep the surveyed urban jobless rate at around 5.5 percent this year.
Observers said that with the upgrading of digital technology and the continuous development of society in recent years, a number of new occupations have been approved by the state and are appearing more and more around us. These new occupations offer job seekers direction and more options.
The ministry said China will continue efforts to foster new employment growth in areas such as advanced manufacturing and the digital economy, and provide more assistance to key groups, including college graduates and migrant workers.
The increasing of new professions has also provided clues on how to live better in the ageing society, especially for the young elderly.
"Digital and intelligent technologies have reduced the labor intensity of positions, thereby increasing the possibility of employment for the elderly," Yuan Xin, deputy head of the China Population Association and a demographer from Nankai University, told the Global Time on Wednesday.
People need to actively adapt and realize that we are already in a moderately ageing society. Currently, the average life expectancy of Chinese people has reached over 78 years. For the younger elderly who are in good health and well-educated, they are able to adapt to new job opportunities if they voluntarily embrace delaying their retirement so that they have longer period of time to create wealth, the demographer said.
The new occupations included within the NOC are not newly created jobs but those occupations that are not included in the classification, but already have a certain scale of practitioners and require relatively independent and mature professional skills.
According to the MHRSS, "green" is another major label for these new professions. There are already 134 green professions marked in the NOC, accounting for 8 percent of the total number of professions.
Many of these newly included professions stem from the new needs of economic transformation and green low-carbon development, such as hydrogen-based direct reduction ironworkers originating from traditional industries, energy storage station maintenance administrators and power quality administrators to meet the development of emerging industries.
The 2024 Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) will be held in Beijing from September 4 to 6 with the theme of "Joining Hands to Advance Modernization and Build a High-Level China-Africa Community with a Shared Future," the Chinese Foreign Ministry announced on Tuesday.
Leaders of FOCAC's African members will attend the summit at the invitation of the forum. Representatives of relevant African regional organizations and international organizations will attend relevant forum events.
This is the first gathering of the China-Africa family in Beijing since the 2018 FOCAC summit, and the summit will start a new stage in the development of China-Africa relations and write a new chapter in the construction of the China-Africa community with a shared future, the ministry said.
The focus of this cooperation forum is to further align development strategies with African countries and to address the collective demands of more than 50 African nations, experts said, noting that the significance lies in building consensus among the Global South.
The forum's senior officials' meeting and ministerial conference will be held on September 2 and 3 to prepare for the summit. From September 4- 6, a series of events including the summit's opening ceremony, welcome banquet and performances, parallel high-level meetings, the China-Africa entrepreneur conference, and bilateral meetings will take place, Lin Jian, a spokesperson for the foreign ministry, said at a press conference on Tuesday.
Mutual respect, equality, and joint consultation are key features of FOCAC, Lin said, noting that both sides are maintaining close communication and coordination to prepare for summit activities, continuing to promote the spirit of China-Africa friendship and cooperation.
The summit is taking place against the backdrop of intense great power competition, so some Western countries such as the US will closely watch it, Shen Shiwei, non-resident research fellow at the Institute of African Studies at Zhejiang Normal University, told the Global Times on Tuesday.
For African countries, the summit is highly anticipated, as they look forward to what new blueprints for cooperation will emerge, the expert noted.
Through the FOCAC summit, China and Africa will carry forward traditional friendship, deepen solidarity and cooperation and open up new space for accelerating the common development of China and Africa, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said in March.
As African countries realize that they need to explore a development path that suits their national conditions and hold their future in their own hands, China will continue to stand firmly with Africa and support an Africa that is truly independent in thinking and ideas, Wang said.
Given the heightened challenges Africa faces in the post-COVID era, there may be even closer cooperation between China and Africa, Song Wei, a professor at the School of International Relations and Diplomacy at the Beijing Foreign Studies University, told the Global Times on Tuesday.
"This may include financial support. Additionally, there may be cooperation in Africa's industrialization and modernization efforts, particularly in infrastructure development across regions," Song said.
In line with the demand for African integration, there will also be measures to support the construction of integrated infrastructure, the expert added.
The summit will highlight areas of focus for China-Africa cooperation, especially in light of current power politics, and trends toward "deglobalization" and trade protectionism, some experts said.
"The emphasis will be on investment in industries to promote modernization. Over the past few years, FOCAC has focused on small yet impactful projects that improve livelihoods, poverty alleviation, governance exchange and infrastructure development," Shen said, noting that these areas will be of particular interest and are key highlights of the summit.
The summit is expected to explore how China and Africa can participate more in international affairs, promote the development agenda of African countries, and the Global South, experts said.
"Some African countries like South Africa, Egypt and Ethiopia have joined the BRICS mechanism. The summit will emphasize how China and Africa can better defend justice and promote a fair and reasonable international order in current global affairs," Shen said.
The Philippines, Vietnam and Malaysia have enhanced their infringement in the islands and reefs they illegally occupied in the South China Sea, according to a report Chinese think tank Grandview Institution released on Tuesday. Experts from the institution also warned of increasing illegal resupply activities by the Philippines to the illegally grounded warship in the South China Sea in 2024.
In recent years, China’s land reclamation and deployment of defensive military facilities on the islands and reefs in the South China Sea, out of its concern for maintaining national sovereignty and security, have been hyped up by the Western media as a testimony of the alleged "China threat" theory. Thereafter, the US and other extra-regional countries have been intensifying their interference, especially military interference, in the South China Sea issue. Their intervention has further worsened the maritime security environment in China’s periphery. In sharp contrast, the Western media turns a blind eye to the fact that Vietnam, the Philippines and Malaysia have occupied more than 40 islands and reefs in the Nansha Islands over the past four decades, and kept expanding land area, building facilities and deploying military capabilities on some of these islands, read the report.
In particular, Vietnam and the Philippines have further intensified their construction activities on occupied islands and reefs since 2022. Vietnam has carried out large-scale land reclamation on several islands and reefs, increasing the land area by three square kilometers, far exceeding the total construction scale of the past forty years. The Philippines has frequently attempted to reinforce its construction on the illegally grounded warship at the Ren'ai Jiao (Ren'ai Reef).
These actions have complicated and escalated the disputes, and have had an impact on peace and stability, the report said.
On May 9, 1999, the military vessel BRP Sierra Madre illegally intruded into China's Ren'ai Jiao, or what the Philippine side calls as the Second Thomas Shoal, running aground due to purported "technical difficulties."
According to the report, the vessel Sierra Madre has been grounded in the Ren'ai Jiao for a long time with over ten Filipino soldiers stationed and this has constituted actual encroachment of the Ren'ai Jiao. The Philippine military's Western Command is responsible for commanding the grounded troops and the Philippine Navy sends ships to resupply the grounded troop.
In 2022, the Philippine Navy conducted 11 illegal resupply activities to the Ren'ai Jiao, while in 2023, the number increased to 14 with more disguised approaches, according to the report.
Liu Xiaobo, director of the ocean research center of the Grandview Institution, told the Global Times that, before 2023, the Philippine Navy supplied the grounded military vessel once a month, but after that, the number of illegal resupply activities increased.
The current trend shows that the illegal supply actions in 2024 will continue to increase, according to Liu. "In order to reduce sensitivity, the Philippines has rented civilian ships - instead of sending military vessels - to supply the stranded ship under the escort of coast guard ships, but the Philippines has been reportedly taking advantage of the opportunity of resupplying troops to transport illegal construction materials to the grounded ship and China firmly opposed such attempt."
In addition, the Philippines currently invites international media to board transport ships and openly hype up China's so-called "interception actions" against them in order to gain sympathy and support from the international community. However, images accompanying the report show that compared to before, the main deck of the vessel Sierra Madre as been partially reinforced and renovated in 2023, indicating that the Philippines had secretly transported building materials long ago.
The report also points out that the Philippines has enhanced construction on the islands it occupied in the South China Sea. Apart from Ren'ai Jiao, the Philippines has illegally occupied eight islands and reefs in China's Nansha Islands, namely, Mahuan Dao, Feixin Dao, Zhongye Dao, Nanyao Dao, Beizi Dao, Xiyue Dao, Shuanghuang Shazhou, and Siling Jiao. In June 1978, it unilaterally went beyond its territorial scope to set up the so-called "Kalayaan Island Group," which violates China's territorial sovereignty.
Before 2022, the Philippines conducted less construction on the occupied islands and reefs. But in March 2022, the Philippines built a new helicopter landing pad on the Mahuan Dao; and in May of that year, the Philippine Coast Guard established command observation stations on the Mahuan Dao and others. These command observation stations monitor surrounding vessels and report information to the Philippine Coast Guard headquarters, according to the report.
In January 2024, Manila's military chief Romeo Brawner told media that the Philippines would develop islands in all the nine islands and reefs in the South China Sea that it considers part of its territory to make them more habitable for troops.
The Philippines Coast Guard recently claimed that China was attempting to build an "artificial island" in the Ren'ai Jiao. In response, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said at a press conference on Monday "the Philippines has repeatedly spread rumors, deliberately vilified China and tried to mislead the international community. None of those attempts will succeed."
Wang also urged the Philippines to stop making irresponsible remarks, face up to the facts and return to the right track of properly handling maritime disputes through negotiation and consultation.
Liu believes the Philippines will continue to advance its confrontational South China Sea policy in 2024. He points out that main factors contributing to the escalation of the disputes between China and the Philippines over the South China Sea include the pro-US stance of the Marcos government, the increased assistance from the US and its allies to the Philippines, as well as the joint defense commitment of the US-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty that backs and encourages the Philippines' provocative actions of encroachment.
In addition, the Philippines has strengthened its maritime military capabilities in recent years, providing it with confidence, Liu said. But ASEAN countries will continue to be important forces in maintaining peace and stability in the South China Sea with China as resolving disputes through peaceful means and maintaining regional peace and stability remains a consensus between ASEAN countries and China despite the differences in their concerns and positions on the South China Sea issue, Liu noted.
International financial institutions are increasingly upbeat on Chinese stocks, with the NASDAQ Golden Dragon China Index surging by 14.86 percent in the 10 trading days ended on Friday, the highest growth rate for a two-week period since January 2023.
According to international financial giants including Morgan Stanley and Bridgewater Associates, the China market is a good place to diversify their investment portfolios and explore value, as international investors' interest in yuan-denominated assets is on the rise.
On Thursday, the index jumped by 6.01 percent, the highest daily increase since the end of July last year, data showed. Analysts said that an opportunity is emerging for medium- and long-term capital to flow into yuan assets, especially China's stock market.
Given the rollout of targeted policies to boost the high-quality development of the A-share market and the sustained recovery of China's economy, now is a good opportunity to invest in China's stock market and Chinese companies, Yang Delong, chief economist at Shenzhen-based First Seafront Fund, told the Global Times on Sunday.
He said the valuations of the A-share and Hong Kong stock markets are near record lows, and confidence and patience are needed to achieve long-term gains.
The Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee Political Bureau meeting, held on April 30, vowed to front-load efforts to effectively put the established macro policies in place, and well implement a proactive fiscal policy and a prudent monetary policy.
Those policies will further promote an economic recovery and boost the development of China's stock markets, Yang said.
Since the beginning of 2024, global asset management companies have expanded their investment portfolios in China, boosted by their growing confidence in Chinese assets.
"Global funds are returning to China stocks," Bloomberg reported in March, citing Morgan Stanley analysts.
Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio posted on social media platform LinkedIn on April 1 saying that "[T]here is no such thing as a bad market; there is only bad decision making. I find the markets in China good for my type of decision making."
Recently, stocks in the Chinese mainland and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) staged a stunning rebound after the State Council, the country's cabinet, pledged measures to keep the stock market stable.
The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index regained the 3,100 level at the end of April after diving to a multi-year low.
In the first quarter of this year, net inflows of northbound capital - overseas money flowing into China's A-share market through the HKSAR - reached 68.22 billion yuan ($9.65 billion), exceeding the total in 2023, the China Securities Journal reported, citing data from information provider Choice.
In April, the State Council released guidelines on strengthening regulation, forestalling risks and promoting high-quality development of the capital market. This was the third guideline document on the capital market from the State Council in two decades.
By strengthening supervision, and effectively preventing and defusing risks, the new guideline has made arrangements in areas including listings, transactions and the entry of long-term capital. This is expected to enhance fairness and efficiency in the A-share market and stimulate market vitality, Dong Shaopeng, a senior research fellow at the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University of China, told the Global Times.
The challenges faced by the A-share market are temporary and a bull market will eventually come, Dong said, noting that targeted policies and sound macroeconomic operations will inject new impetus into the capital market.
He said that more efforts are needed to strengthen regulations involving the major shareholders of listed companies, agencies, local governments and stock exchanges. In addition, diversified delisting channels are needed to protect the rights and interests of common investors during the whole process of delisting.
China's imports and exports roared back to growth in April after a significant drop in the previous month, according to official data on Thursday, and the strong data add to growing signs that the world's second-largest economy remains on a steady recovery trend despite lingering challenges at home and abroad.
The strong trade data underscored the resilience of China's trade sector, with growth in exports pointing to the country's unshakable role in global supply chains, while the expansion in imports highlighted strong domestic demand, experts said. With the country's laser-like focus on the economy through a slew of stimulus measures, China's economic recovery will continue to consolidate and is on track to meet annual growth targets, they noted.
In April, in US dollar terms, total imports and exports surged 4.4 percent year-on-year, reversing a 5.1 percent drop in March, according to the General Administration of Customs (GAC) on Thursday. Notably, exports expanded by 1.5 percent year-on-year in April, compared to a 7.5 percent contraction in the previous month, while imports jumped by 8.4 percent year-on-year, reversing a 1.9 percent decline in March, the GAC data showed.
"First-quarter trade data were dragged down by the drop in March due to a high base in March 2023. And April's data more accurately reflected the development trade in China's import and export sectors," Zhou Mi, a senior research fellow at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, told the Global Times on Thursday.
Zhou said that the trade data demonstrated the steady recovery trend of the Chinese economy supported by a strong rebound in the trade sector in the first four months of 2024.
During that period, in Chinese yuan-denominated terms, China's total imports and exports expanded by 5.7 percent year-on-year, accelerating from a 5 percent growth in the first quarter of the year, according to the GAC.
In terms of top trading partners, China's imports and exports with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, better known as ASEAN, its largest trading partner, jumped by 8.5 percent year-on-year from January to April. Imports and exports with the EU, the second-largest trading partner, dropped by 1.8 percent year-on-year, while that with the US, the third-largest trading partner, grew by 1.1 percent year-on-year.
Moreover, among the highlights of Thursday's data are the robust growth in exports by private enterprises and exports of mechanical and electrical products - both major growth drivers. Private firms' total exports expanded by 9 percent year-on-year in the first four months in yuan terms, accounting for 64.7 percent of China's total export value. Exports of mechanical and electrical products grew by 6.9 percent, accounting for 59.2 percent of China's total export value, according to the GAC.
Momentum to last
The strong figures for the January-April period also reflected China's strong competitiveness and prominent role in the global industrial and supply chain, Zhou noted. "If there are no major 'black swan' events in the future, and there are no policies and actions that significantly interfere with trade activities, trade will still maintain a sustained recovery," he said.
While the growth in exports highlighted China's unshakable role in global trade, the expansion in imports accentuated the strong recovery in China's domestic demand, which is key to the overall economic recovery, according to experts.
"In the previous two years, the growth rate of imports was relatively low, and the total import and export volume was mainly supported by exports, reflecting insufficient domestic demand, Hu Qimu, a deputy secretary-general of the digital-real economies integration Forum 50, told the Global Times on Thursday.
"But vis-à-vis this year's data, the growth rate of imports is higher than that of exports, indicating that domestic demand is recovering and the overall internal circulation is becoming smoother," Hu noted.
Hu said that China has moved swiftly to tackle systemic risks, consumption has been recovering steadily and operations of various industries have been improving significantly.
The impressive trade data on Thursday come on the heels of a slew of indicators that showed a strong recovery momentum in the Chinese economy. In the first quarter of 2024, China's GDP expanded by 5.3 percent year-on-year, beating market expectations. Retail sales, a main gauge of consumption and the biggest economic growth driver, increased by 4.7 percent year-on-year.
Such strong momentum in China's economic recovery is widely expected to further gather traction, as Chinese policymakers continue to step up policy support to boost the economy, experts said.
The latest signal of strong policy support came from a meeting, held on April 30, of the Political Bureau of the 20th Communist Party of China Central Committee. Noting that the economy has secured a good start this year, the meeting called for various measures to further consolidate the recovery momentum, including front-loading efforts to effectively put the established macro policies in place and issuing ultra-long special treasury bonds at an early stage, according to the Xinhua News Agency.
In terms of trade, the meeting called for efforts to actively expand trade in intermediate goods, service trade, digital trade, and cross-border e-commerce exports, and support private enterprises in expanding overseas markets.
Apart from policy support, the strong recovery in domestic consumption will help stabilize trade throughout the year, according to Hu. "The full-year trade will maintain a generally positive growth rate that is higher than that of last year," he said.
Beyond trade, China's two other main economic drivers - consumption and investment - are also expected to maintain a strong recovery momentum, thanks to intensifying policy support, which will ensure that the full-year economic development goals will be met, experts noted.
In spite of challenges both at home and abroad, China has set a GDP growth target of around 5 percent this year. With the growing positive signs, many experts are increasingly confident that China will be able to meet its 2024 GDP growth target, and the country will remain the main driver for global growth.
This year marks the 15th anniversary of the establishment of the China-Vietnam comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership. High-level interactions between the two countries have been frequent, and exchanges in various fields such as the economy and trade have been increasing.
At the end of November, the 12th meeting of the China-Vietnam Economic and Trade Cooperation Committee, aimed at discussing the high-quality development of bilateral economic and trade relations, was held in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi. The Vietnam News Agency reported that enormous potential dwells in the China-Vietnam trade cooperation - a highlight in bilateral ties. Vietnamese media sources also pointed out that China has been Vietnam's largest trading partner for many years, and Vietnam is China's largest trading partner within the ASEAN. It proves that achievements in China-Vietnam economic and trade cooperation have been highly recognized by both sides. Recently, several Chinese and Vietnamese experts, based on their own research and observations, spoke to the Global Times about the cooperation between China and Vietnam in the field of economy and trade, and expressed their optimism about future development potential.
3,000 tons of durian export to China
Bui Trong Van, former minister counselor at the Vietnamese Embassy in China, told Global Times that economic and trade cooperation between China and Vietnam has evolved from a simple trade pattern to a higher level of cooperation closely related to the industrial and supply chains. This is mainly due to the political and strategic guidance of the top leaders of both countries, as well as the continuous, stable, and healthy development of the comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership between the two sides. At the same time, the two economies have great complementarities. Deepening economic and trade cooperation fully serves the fundamental interests of both countries.
Data are the most convincing evidence. In 1992, when the two countries signed the economic cooperation agreement, the bilateral trade volume was only $179 million. In 2000, trade volume between the two countries surpassed $2 billion. Statistics provided by China's customs authorities showed that the two countries' trade increased by 19.7 percent to $230.2 billion in 2021, surpassing the $200 billion mark for the first time in history. In the first 10 months of this year, the bilateral trade volume has reached $185.1 billion.
Trade growth is inseparable from the comprehensive development of port infrastructure. In recent years, both central and local governments on both sides have attached great importance to port upgrading to improve customs clearance efficiency. Cross-border ports between the two sides are connected by highways, and China's high-speed rail has been extended to border cities in Vietnam and will soon be extended to port cities.
Border trade is drawing increasing attention from both China and Vietnam. For example, Dongxing, a county-level city in South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, is the only port city in China connected by both land and sea to Vietnam. Mong Cai is the largest, most open, and most promising economic zone in northern Vietnam.
At the end of November and the beginning of December, Dongxing and Mong Cai jointly held the 15th Vietnam-China International Trade and Tourism Fair, as well as a forum on promoting cross-border tourism between Dongxing and Mong Cai, attracting extensive media attention.
According to Vietnamese statistics, in the first 10 months of this year, Vietnam's vegetable and fruit exports to China reached $3.18 billion, a year-on-year increase of 165 percent. Among them, Vietnamese durian is a particular favorite for Chinese consumers. Since being allowed to enter the China market in July 2022, Vietnamese durian has directly promoted the surge in vegetable and fruit exports to China. A woman engaged in the fruit business in Vietnam's Long An Province told the Global Times, "In the first half of this year, my family exported over 3,000 tons of durian to China and made a lot of money." The highlights of the China-Vietnam economic and trade cooperation are not only reflected in trade, but also in the accelerated promotion of investment and industrial cooperation.
During the first half of 2023, Global Times' special correspondent conducted an in-depth research at the industrial zones in Hanoi, Bac Ninh, Bac Giang, Hai Duong, and Hai Phong in Vietnam, and found that compared to the situation five years ago, the proportion of Chinese-funded enterprises in various industrial parks has significantly increased, and the signboards of Chinese-funded enterprises are particularly prominent. Almost all interviewed representatives of Chinese-funded enterprises stated that their decision to invest in Vietnam has turned out to be correct, and they are optimistic about Vietnam's development prospects.
According to statistics from Vietnam, China is Vietnam's sixth-largest source of foreign direct investment, with 3,949 active projects, and total registered capital exceeding $25.8 billion.
Chinese enterprise investment in Vietnam has provided employment for hundreds of thousands of local people, improved local industrial support mechanisms, and driven local export growth. For example, China's investment in the Vietnamese textile industry has increased year-on-year, and several Chinese large-scale modern textile enterprises have formed a relatively complete industrial chain locally.
The China-Vietnam economic and trade cooperation has entered a new stage of building international industrial supply chains. Vietnam imports intermediate products like industrial raw materials and mechanical equipment from China, processes and assembles them, and then exports them to other countries, including the US, South Korea, Japan, and other Southeast Asian countries. It can be seen that the China-Vietnam main industrial and supply chains naturally extend to a global industrial and supply chains. This is the most vivid embodiment of the success of jointly building the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which is not only of important economic significance but also of important strategic significance.
Xu Liping, director of the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Thursday that Vietnam regards its relationship with China as a strategic choice and a top priority in its foreign policy, and China regards Vietnam as a priority in its neighborhood diplomacy. Both sides attach great importance to their diplomatic positioning toward each other. Although Vietnam has elevated its bilateral relationships with the US and Japan to comprehensive strategic partnerships this year, its comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership with China has lasted 15 years, which is apparently long, and we have one more element - cooperation.
Gu Xiaosong, dean of the ASEAN Research Institute at the Hainan Tropical Ocean University, told the Global Times that although Vietnamese businesspeople also realize that close cooperation with China in the industrial chain and supply chain may be under US pressure, this cooperation nonetheless holds huge commercial interests. If the chain with China is cut off, it will be difficult for the Vietnamese manufacturing industry to sustain itself based solely on its own industrial foundation and manufacturing capabilities. Therefore, Vietnamese companies often take measures to avoid adverse effects from the West.
At the 12th meeting of the China-Vietnam Economic and Trade Cooperation Committee, held on November 28, the Chinese side expressed its willingness to work with Vietnam for high-quality development of bilateral economic and trade relations. China will continue to take measures to promote unimpeded trade with Vietnam, support bilateral cooperation in railway, 5G, and other infrastructure projects, accelerate investment cooperation in the digital economy and green development, and expand cooperation in agriculture, border trade, supply chains, industrial parks, and at sub-national levels. China will ensure high-quality implementation of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RECP) and accelerate the development of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area 3.0.
Zhao Weihua, director of the Center for China's Relations with Neighboring Countries at Fudan University, told the Global Times that Vietnam views the RCEP positively, as it brings tariff reductions that benefit countries like Vietnam and promote its exports to China. Vietnam attaches great importance to exporting agricultural products to China, which is its largest export market for agricultural products.
Zhao pointed out that Vietnam also recognizes that China's demand is changing, and ordinary agricultural products can no longer meet the demand. Instead, it needs to export high-quality agricultural products.
Therefore, in the agricultural sector, Vietnam holds a welcoming attitude toward various Chinese enterprises and hopes that they can assist Vietnam in food processing in areas such as rice, tropical fruits, and aquatic products, with the end products being exported to China, he noted.
Xu, who is currently on a research visit to Vietnam, pointed out that one area of focus in the China-Vietnam economic and trade cooperation is green energy.
Vietnam, with a high demand for solar energy, needs to promote the rapid development of the photovoltaic industry, Xu said, adding that Vietnam faces significant pressure to transition to new-energy sources but lacks the necessary technological expertise. On the other hand, China has been rapidly developing in the field of new energy. This creates strong complementarities between the two countries.
China's exports to the US reached 522 billion yuan ($72.52 billion) in the first two months of 2024, up 8.1 percent year-on-year, which analysts said reflects the strong competitiveness of Chinese products despite Washington's protectionism.
According to data released by the General Administration of Customs (GAC) on Thursday, the US remained China's third largest trade partner in January and February, with bilateral trade up 3.7 percent on a yearly basis to reaching 707.7 billion yuan.
China's imports from the US fell 7 percent to reach 185.7 billion yuan.
China's trade surplus with the US hit 336.3 billion yuan during the period, up 18.8 percent year-on-year, GAC data showed.
"The remarkable growth in China's export to the US during a slack season is uplifting, underscoring the important trade relations between the two countries," Zhou Mi, a senior research fellow at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, told the Global Times on Thursday.
Although China and the US have engaged in dialogues in a variety of fields following the meeting between the two heads of state in San Francisco in November, they failed to reach consensus in many aspects. The US needs to send more cooperation signals to the market, Zhou said.
Dismissing Western media hyping up that Mexico replaced China as the top exporter to the US in 2023, Zhou said that Chinese goods are internationally competitive, and without Washington's political interference, there is still possibility that China and the US will continue to be each other's most important trade partners.
He said there is a great potential for China to export machinery products, electric vehicles and charging equipment to the US. While the US aims to revitalize its domestic manufacturing sector, China also has advantages in exporting intermediate products and components.
In response to the US investigation into Chinese made vehicles that use "connected" car technology, Zhou said the US' protectionist moves bring harms to market stability and global industrial and supply chains.
"If the US wants to reach some achievements in climate change and green development, it should fully give play to each country's advantages across the global market and reduce the trade barriers," he said.
While US trade protectionism has seriously hindered the entry of Chinese vehicles into the US market, American carmakers have been reaping the benefits of the Chinese market.
A slump in Tesla's shares has raised concerns about its challenges, which come from both increasing market competition and American politicians' irresponsible rhetoric about Chinese electric vehicles (EVs).
Shares in Tesla plunged more than 7 percent on Monday and fell to about $185.65 during after-hours trading, putting the company's China operation under the spotlight again.
Tesla sold 60,365 China-made vehicles in February, down 19 percent from a year earlier and the lowest since December 2022, according to data from the China Passenger Car Association. Usually, car sales stall during the Chinese New Year holidays, which fell in February this year.
Since the beginning of this year, Tesla's stock price has plunged more than 24 percent. It may be a sign that the challenges facing Tesla are more complicated and severe than expected.
Tesla once dominated the global market for new-energy vehicles with its advanced technology and the manufacturing support of its Gigafactory Shanghai. But it's losing its edge to the rise of Chinese EV makers like BYD. Tesla's EV sales remained the highest globally in 2023, but its fourth-quarter sales were surpassed by BYD.
Amid intensifying competition, Tesla also faces challenges in alleviating Chinese consumer concerns over data security. US politicians' abuse of security risks to block Chinese EVs could backfire on its major EV maker. For instance, US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said in a recent interview with US media outlet MSNBC that "cars these days are like an iPhone on wheels… You connect your phone and you might receive the text message… Imagine a world with 3 million Chinese vehicles on the roads of America, and Beijing can turn them off at the same time."
With China remaining a major market for Tesla, US politicians' hostility toward Chinese EVs on the grounds of so-called national security may lead to mixed feelings among Chinese consumers.
Tesla's sales in the Chinese market exceeded 600,000 units in 2023, 439,770 units in 2022 and 470,000 units in 2021, according to media reports. If EVs really are as risky as Raimondo claimed, then Chinese consumers clearly have more reason to be worried, with so many Tesla vehicles around them.
Of course, those with rational minds can see that the main purpose of Raimondo's remarks is to keep Chinese EVs completely out of the US market, and the so-called security issues are just an excuse to build a high wall of trade and industrial protectionism for its domestic market.
In recent years, it has not been uncommon to see US politicians use the "national security threat" rhetoric to stoke fears over a wide range of Chinese products, and Chinese EVs are just one typical example.
Tesla's sales and profits in China not only reflect Chinese consumers' recognition of its products, but also demonstrate China's unbiased policy support for global EV makers.
Data security is important, but the key lies in managing the risks in a proper way, instead of using the issue as an excuse to block others from entering the market.
The reason why Tesla has achieved strong development in the Chinese market is because it abides by Chinese laws and regulations.
The choice is whether to manage risks with unbiased regulations, or to politicize economic and trade issues to discriminate against products from other countries. The relative level of EV development in China and the US says it all.
