Sinolytics Radar • Table.Briefings

August 16th, 2022

Growth of foreign companies severely impaired

Foreign enterprises in China are re-assessing their China strategy in face of both stringent covid policies and decoupling trends. The statistics on their business performance, as given by the National Bureau of Statistics, underline that they have reasons to be worried. Foreign companies in China have recorded low revenue growth in 2022 year-to-date compared to the same period last year. Further, their operating profitability decreased from the high point in 2021.

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Sinolytics Radar

August 9th, 2022

China increases focus on environmental protection and occupational safety

In past years, Chinese governmental authorities have improved the enforcement and implementation of laws and regulations in several areas, creating a more effective and, from the firms’ perspective, more challenging regulatory environment for both domestic and Foreign Invested Businesses. Sinolytics’ analysis of administrative penalties in six selected regulatory areas from 2017 to 2022 (year to date) identifies production safety and environmental protection as the two areas with the largest and quickly growing number of administrative penalties. This also reflects the resources the government allocates for compliance inspection and enforcement in these two particular fields.

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Sinolytics Radar

August 2nd, 2022

China promotes battery swapping for EVs

China is currently specifically promoting the development of battery swapping for electric vehicles. Eleven cities already started or planned trials, including preferential policies and active participation of domestic companies. Foreign companies need to monitor the progress in battery swapping closely and prepare for possible challenges.

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Sinolytics Radar

July 27th, 2022

China's decoupling so far only symbolic

As bilateral tensions between the US/EU and China grow, all parties are extending their decoupling toolbox to increase leverage. China created the legal foundation in 2020 and 2021 introducing several new instruments to retaliate against US trade sanctions. While these instruments give the Chinese government sweeping power to retaliate against US measures, their actual implementation has remained slow.

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Sinolytics Radar

July 19th, 2022

China clarifies regulations for data transfer

The Chinese leadership has long seen data as a strategic resource and has declared it a “factor of production” in 2020. This frames data protection and cross-border data transfer in an explicit national security light. The lack of clarity of rules has been a major concern to MNC’s globally integrated IT systems. The release of recently published regulations sheds some light on requirements for cross-border data transfer.

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Sinolytics Radar

July 12th, 2022

China must choose between growth and zero-Covid

China’s State Council, led by Premier Li Keqiang, issued large-size economic stimulus programs in May to absorb some of the economic damage caused by Covid-related restrictions. However, it is becoming increasingly clear that achieving the desired economic growth while continuing current Covid policies will be impossible.

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Sinolytics Radar

July 5th, 2022

The invisible backbone of China's social credit system

“Internet + Supervision” platform is a digital regulatory system initiated by the State Council to upgrade market regulation. It is the result sharing backbone of China’s Corporate Social Credit System and an integral part of China’s push for the buildup of a “digital government”.

By Redaktion Table

Sinolytics Radar

June 28th, 2022

Asean countries want to remain neutral

In addition to its security-driven strategy in the Indo-Pacific, the US finally introduced an economic component in form of IPEF (Indo-Pacific Economic Framework) aimed at reducing China’s economic dominance. However, this will be difficult to achieve given the strong dependence of IPEF members on China and the preference among ASEAN countries to hedge between US and China.

By Redaktion Table

Sinolytics Radar

June 21st, 2022

Foreign companies lose importance

China’s self-sufficiency ambitions, changes in local consumer tastes, and increase in local competencies will change how the Chinese government sees the utility and the replaceability of foreign companies in the market

By Redaktion Table

Sinolytics Radar

June 14th, 2022

The Keqiang index as an alternative to GDP

The Keqiang index, comprising the growth in railway freight, power consumption and bank loans, has been used widely as an alternative to China’s notoriously mistrusted GDP growth figure. More recently, many experts have argued that the index has not captured the transformation of China’s economy towards a more technology- and service-driven one, thereby gradually losing its meaningfulness. However, under the current circumstance of large-scale fiscal stimulus and the re-emerging issue of economic data reliability, the Keqiang index might see a revival as a powerful tool to decipher the real dynamics of the Chinese economy.

By Redaktion Table