Source: NCDA&CS, 1/12/22

The General Administration of Customs of China issued Regulations of the People's Republic of China on the Registration and Administration of Overseas Manufacturers of Imported Food. It asks overseas manufacturers of production, processing, and storage that export foods to China, to obtain registration with the Customs of China after Jan 1st, 2022.

China's economy has continuously recovered in 2021 and its full-year GDP growth is projected to exceed the expected target, Vice-Premier of China Liu He said. China's annual economic growth target was set at above 6% in 2021. Having grown by 9.8% year-on-year in the first three quarters of the year, China’s GDP growth is expected to achieve about 8% for the whole year of 2021, experts said.

China's economy is expected to grow around 5.3% in 2022 following the expected 8% growth in 2021, according to the blue book on Chinese economy forecasts by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. In addition, it's suggested that policymakers should set a 2022 economic growth target above 5%, giving them more room to deal with challenges and focus on pushing reforms and boosting high-quality development.  

According to the data disclosed by the National Bureau of Statistics of China on 7th, China's total imports and exports expanded 22% year-on-year to USD $5.55 trillion in the first 11 months of 2021. Both exports and imports continued double-digit growth in the first 11 months of the year, surging 21.8% and 22.2% from a year earlier, respectively. 

In December, thousands of local COVID-19 infection cases appeared in different provinces across China. As of Dec 31st, there were 2 high-risk regions and 70 medium-risk regions in China. The most serious areas of the epidemic were concentrated in Shaanxi Province, especially its Capital city Xi'an. Since Dec 9th, Xi'an City had reported a total of 1,758 local confirmed cases. However, Prof. Zhang Boli stated on Jan 4th that it would be entirely possible to control the epidemic in late January. Due to the emergence of local cases in many places, as the Spring Festival travel season is about to begin, all localities had strengthened their prevention and control measures against the epidemic. The Beijing authorities once again issued the call of "Celebrating the Chinese New Year on the spot".