ECONOMY/SOCIETY

The 2023 “two sessions” were held between March 3 and March 13 in Beijing.The 2023 government work report,delivered on March 5,reviews the achievements China made in 2022 and sets goals for 2023.

China’s Logistics Sector Handles over 20 billion Parcels in 67 Days

China’s logistics industry saw its delivery volume this year exceed 20 billion parcels by March 8,2023,as the country gives priority to restoring and expanding consumption,according to the State Post Bureau (SPB).

The country’s courier companies hit the 20-billion-parcels mark within the first 67 days of 2023.This milestone was achieved 72 days earlier than in 2019,prior to the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic.This demonstrates the vigorous vitality of China’s express delivery industry and the resilience and potential of the Chinese consumer market,the SPB said,adding that consumer market’s recovery is accelerating,and economic recovery is picking up pace.

Data also show that over 100 million parcels are handled in rural areas every day,as industrial products are sent to villages and agricultural products are shipped out to urban households.

Generative AI Player Xiao-I Floats Shares on Nasdaq

Xiao-I Corporation,a generative artificial intelligence(AI) enterprise from China,floated its shares on Nasdaq on March 9,2023.

Based in east China’s Shanghai,Xiao-I raised US$38.76 million by issuing 5.7 million American Depository Shares (ADSs) at the price of US $6.8 per ADS.Xiao-I posted US $3.365 million of net income in 2021 compared with net losses of US $7.056 million in 2020.

Xiao-I intends to keep any future earnings to finance the expansion of its business,and it does not anticipate that any cash dividends will be paid or any funds transferred from one entity to another in the foreseeable future.

Basic Medical Insurance Fund Balance Surpasses RMB 4 trillion

China’s basic medical insurance fund recorded an accumulated balance of RMB 4.25 trillion at the end of 2022.

The income and expenditure of the fund hit nearly RMB 3.07 trillion and RMB 2.44 trillion respectively in 2022.

More than 1.34 billion people,accounting for over 95 percent of the Chinese population,had been enrolled in the country’s basic medical insurance.

As of the end of 2022,the number of designated medical institutions where direct settlement of cross-provincial hospitalization expenses is available had grown to 63,000.The same service for outpatient costs had been provided at 89,000 designated facilities nationwide.

Now at least one designated institution that offers direct settlement of cross-provincial medical expenses — including outpatient expenses — can be found in every Chinese county.

13.1 Million

China’s export volume of pulp,paper,and paper products surged 40 percent year-on-year to 13.1 million tonnes in 2022.The export value of these products reached US $32.05 billion,up 32.4 percent year-on-year.

Procuratorates Upgrade IP Protection

Procuratorates have intensified the comprehensive judicial protection of intellectual property rights via specialized case handling,during which about 13,000 people were prosecuted for IP infringements last year,according to the Supreme People’s Procuratorate(SPP).

They also intensified the supervision of civil administration litigation,which refers to a citizen or organization initiating a lawsuit against administration departments for violations.Procuratorates handled 937 cases of IP civil administration litigation last year,up 72.2 percent year-on-year.

In November of 2020,the SPP set up the IPR Procuratorial Office to coordinate resources from the criminal,civil,administrative,and public interest litigation departments to carry out IP protection.

By the end of last year,29 provincial-level procuratorates had set up IPR procuratorial departments with professional personnel.In 2022,the SPP also issued a guideline to clarify the principles,tasks,specific measures,and case-handling procedures for IPR procuratorial work.

During the process of handling cases,the procuratorates have focused on the key national innovation sectors,highlighting the protection in emerging technology and other areas such as information technology,artificial intelligence,and biomedicine.

Procuratorial organs also pay close attention to frontier IP issues in the fields of metaverse,non-fungible tokens,databases,and short videos,and strengthen in-depth research on different types of IPR protection methods and legal risks.

Year 2022,Warm and Dry

Dry and warm weather prevailed in China last year,while droughts and floods caused severe damage in some regions,according to an official report released by the China Meteorological Administration,China Climate Bulletin(2022).

The average temperature in 2022 was 0.62 degrees Celsius higher than usual,with temperatures in spring,summer,and autumn hitting record highs since 1951,said Jia Xiaolong,deputy director of the National Climate Center.The average precipitation was 606.1 millimeters last year,the lowest it has been since the year 2012.Last summer saw the second smallest amount of rainfall since 1961.Droughts and floods badly hit some regions in the country in 2022.

Looking at the year 2023,Jia said that his center predicts a general trend of grim weather,anticipating a good number of impactful extreme weather events taking place throughout the year.

5G Infrastructure Maintains Growth

A recent bulletin published by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology disclosed that China built 887,000 new 5G base stations last year,increasing the total number to 2.31 million,or 60 percent of the world total.

China Telecom,China Mobile,China Unicom,and China Tower made a combined investment of RMB 180.3 billion in 5G infrastructure,which accounted for 43 percent of their total investment in fixed assets for telecommunication.This has allowed 5G coverage to expand not only among smaller cities but also to towns and rural areas.

By the end of 2022 the number of mobile phone users in China had topped 1.68 billion.This means there are 119.2 mobile phones per 100 people,the number of which is higher than the global level of 106.2 per 100 people.Among them 561 million,or one third,used 5G mobile phones,which is 2.75 times of the global rate——12.1 percent.

The application of 5G technology has been integrated with such fields as smart manufacturing,smart medical care,smart education,and digital governance.For instance,China has launched more than 4,000 5G+Industrial Internet projects and a number of 5G fully-connected factories.Chinese telecom companies have set up more than 14,000 5G virtual private networks using 5G network slicing technology,which help accelerate the digital transformation in various sectors.

By the End of 2022

The Total Number of 5G Base Stations in China:2.312 million

Global Proportion:60%

5G Mobile Telephone Subscribers:561 million

Ratio of Mobile Telephone Users:33.3%