Image: Phuong Uyen Vo Hoang via Unsplash
Welcome to China Business News, NEO’s weekly roundup of top business developments as reported by news outlets in China and the region.
This week’s highlights:
- As China continues to ease Covid-19 control measures, the Communist Party signaled that it would shift focus from pandemic prevention to boosting economic growth in 2023. The latest Politburo meeting, held earlier this week and chaired by Xi Jinping, outlined the government’s plans to “promote an overall improvement in economic performance” and “vigorously boost market confidence.” Sources said the government is discussing setting China’s economic growth target at around 5% next year. Compared to the Politburo meeting in July, the official release of this week’s meeting contains significantly fewer words about pandemic prevention and no longer mentions “dynamic zero.” (The United Morning Post)
- Telecoms company Huawei and OPPO, one of the world’s leading smart device manufacturers and innovators, announced they have signed a global patent cross-licensing agreement covering 5G and other standard essential patents, for which they made a package arrangement including patent licensing. OPPO is known to be in a litigation process with Nokia, after the Chinese mobile phone manufacturer accused the company of infringing on its patents. And apparently OPPO isn’t going to lose its ground. Under the newly concluded agreement, the firm obtained a license for Huawei’s 5G technology, while Huawei also obtained the required OPPO patent licenses. (Caixin)
- Chinese exports continued to decline year-on-year in November, with the rate of decline accelerating amid global economic weakness combined with Covid-19. Data released by the General Customs Administration showed that Chinese exports in November fell 8.7% year-on-year in USD equivalent, a decline of 8.4% from October, down to their lowest level since March 2020. Imports fell 10.6% year-on-year, down 9.9% from October, hitting a new negative record since June 2020. The trade surplus in November narrowed by $15.31 billion and amounted to only $69.84 billion. (Caixin)