Expanding Foreign Trade

China’s foreign trade continued to pick up in November 2020 with notable growth and improved structure, official data showed on December 7, 2020.

The country’s foreign trade expanded 7.8 percent year on year in the month, with exports jumping 14.9 percent year on year in yuan terms. Imports dipped 0.8 percent from a year ago, the General Administration of Customs said.

In the first 11 months of 2020, China’s foreign trade of goods totaled about $4.44 trillion, up 1.8 percent year on year, accelerating from an increase of 1.1 percent in the first 10 months of 2020, the administration said in a statement.

“The accelerated growth in foreign trade reflects China’s strong economic resilience,” said Zhuang Rui, a researcher with the Academy of China Open Economy Studies under the University of International Business and Economics.

Booming Cybersecurity Industry

The cybersecurity industry in China’s capital Beijing is booming, with its industrial scale hitting about $9.8 billion in 2019.

Beijing’s cybersecurity industry recorded an average annual growth of about 14.4 percent during the 13th Five-year Plan period (2016-20) and its industrial scale accounted for 41 percent of the country’s total in 2019, according to figures released at a national cybersecurity industry forum.

Beijing now boasts about 50 percent of the country’s cybersecurity companies, with five of the top 10 located in the capital. Beijing will issue a series of supportive measures to assist with the development of a national cybersecurity industrial park, said Yang Xiuling, head of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Economy and Information Technology.

Internet Firms’ Revenues Rise

China’s Internet and related sectors have registered double-digit growth in business revenue in the first 10 months of 2020, official data showed. Major Internet companies raked in about $154.18 billion in the January-october period, up 13.1 percent year on year, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).

During the period, the operating profit of the industry grew by 8.8 percent year on year to $14.55 billion, while the sector’s spending on research and development totaled $9.14 billion, 15.6 percent higher than a year ago.

The Internet sector has become a key component of China’s “new economy” as the country undergoes a growth shift, driven more by technology and consumption.

Increasing Outbound Investment

China will expand the scale of two pilot schemes that allow domestic investors to access foreign assets,

14.9% China's export growth in November 2020 year on year in yuan terms

the country’s foreign exchange regulator said on November 29, 2020.

The scale of the outbound investment schemes - Qualified Domestic Limited Partner (QDLP) and Qualified Domestic Investment Enterprise (QDIE) - in Shanghai, Beijing and Shenzhen will be expanded in the near future, according to the State Administration of Foreign Exchange.

The move aims to further meet domestic investors’ demand for global asset allocation, it said.

The country also plans to launch the pilot QDLP program in the southern island province of Hainan and southwest China’s Chongqing Municipality to better support the construction of Hainan free trade port and the Chengdu-chongqing economic circle, according to the administration.

Promising Commercial Aerospace Industries

The number of Chinese enterprises in commercial aerospace industries has exceeded 160, according to an international aerospace forum held in Wenchang City, Hainan Province in south China, on November 24, 2020. wthe enterprises cover the manufacturing of rockets and satellites, satellite tracking and control, the operation services of communications satellites and remote sensing satellites and other industries, said Wan Yanhui, head of the assets management department of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp. at the Wenchang International Aviation & Aerospace Forum.

China has carried out over 50 international commercial launches and completed the delivery of 14 satellites in orbit, Wan added. The company also plans to build Wenchang into an international spacecraft launch center and an exchange and cooperation platform. CA