Source: NCDA&CS, 10/20/21

1. Top Chinese diplomat Yang Jiechi and US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan met in Zurich, Switzerland, on October 6th. The two exchange views on US-China ties as well as global and regional issues of common concern to both sides. In a press release following the meeting, the Chinese foreign ministry described the meeting as "extensive, candid and in-depth". 

As of the trade between China and the US, Chinese Ambassador to the US Qin Gang said, China has sincerely and steadily implemented the economic and trade agreement, including having taken tangible steps and making headway in areas ranging from intellectual property right protection and expansion of agricultural imports from the US to opening up the financial sector.
In an interview with Chinese broadcaster CGTN on 11th, Vice-Foreign Minister Le Yucheng confirmed that the two sides "have recently established a joint working group to discuss how to address some specific issues in bilateral relations"，"and they have made some progress." 

2. In a highly expected speech on 11th, Katherine Tai, said that she plans to hold "frank" talks with Chinese officials in the coming days, and that the tariffs are to remain in place and could be bolstered by additional rounds, but a "targeted tariff exclusion process" would be reinstated for companies hard hit in the trade war. She also put forward a new phrase to frame the future of the trade relationship－"durable coexistence", and called for a "recoupling" of the two economies. 
Jake Colvin, president of the National Foreign Trade Council in the US, said it was "encouraging" to see US Trade Representative Tai unveil the outlines of a comprehensive strategy to "engage China firmly and directly". 

3. Data from the General Administration of Customs of China showed that China's foreign trade in goods in the first three quarters totaled $4.4 trillion, up 22.7% year-on-year. Compared with the same period in 2019, China's total foreign trade expanded 23.4%, while exports increased 24.5% and imports grew 22%. 

However, the year-on-year growth rate of each quarter has been slowing down, although the overall trade volume has been continuously expanding quarter by quarter. Wen Bin, chief researcher at China Minsheng Bank, said foreign trade growth started to decline from its high level in the third quarter, and the decline is expected to become more obvious during the fourth quarter.

4. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has projected the world economy will grow at 5.9% this year, while China's growth will moderate to 8%, both 0.1% lower than the IMF's July estimates. The IMF said China's prospects for 2021 were marked down slightly due to a stronger-than-anticipated scaling back of public investment, and China's growth in 2022 is estimated at 5.6%. 

5. Affected by the tight coal supply and other factors, China has implemented the policy of "restricting power consumption" in many provinces, which limited the production capacity of many production enterprises, including reducing the soybean crushing capacity of oil plants. It’s reported that this has led to the recent slowdown in the purchase of soybeans by China's oil plants. It is still expected that the soybean crush will continue for some time, but the domestic soybean crush in China is expected to gradually recover.

6. A total of more than 2.22 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered in China as of Oct. 11th, the National Health Commission of China said. Starting in September, more than 10 provinces in China have begun offering COVID-19 booster shots to targeted groups to strengthen their immunity to the virus. And as of 14th, only 2 medium-risk regions have been left in Heilongjiang Province.