CiCM 4th August 2023

NEWS IN CHINA

To ensure the high-quality development of public services agencies, the Ministry of Public Security announced a series of measures in terms of household registration policies. These measures focus on urbanisation of people and includes relaxation on conditions for settlement, promote the agricultural population to settle in cities, improve registration system for permanent residence and many more. In 2022, the urbanisation rate of the registered population had reached 47.7%. The new measures will focus more on improving the point-based settlement system and help solve the issue of settlement of ordinary workers in large cities. Also, the settlement restrictions will be abolished in cities with permanent residence of less than 3 million in urban areas. The rural college students, scientific and technological talents and veterans will also be able to move to their place of employment and entrepreneurship which will help in integrated development of urban and rural areas.
China’s Ministry of Finance along with three other departments have announced tax reduction for college graduates and other key groups in order to support employment and entrepreneurship. The self-employed individuals with an annual taxable income of less than 2 million yuan ($280,000) will have their personal income tax halved. They can also enjoy a 1 percent favourable value-added tax rate, down from 3 percent. Enterprises that hired these people with contracts of more than a year will also be exempt from the tax as well as enterprise income tax within three years, with 6,000 yuan per worker each year. This new policy aims at stabilising employment and building support for college graduates and rural labour force. Nearly 6.2 million unemployed people have been paid in insurance benefits in the first half of the year. The urban unemployment rate was at 5.3% in the first half of 2023 according to the survey conducted by the National Bureau of Statistics.
For the first time in 15 years, the number of Chinese companies in the Fortune Global 500 list has dropped. The released list for 2023 revealed 135 companies from Mainland China and Hong Kong, one less than last year. The 135 Chinese companies span 15 industries and four sectors:finance, transportation, telecommunications and high technology, observing a sales revenue growth of over 5%. In the top 10 companies in the list, three were Chinese, namely State Grid in third, China National Petroleum in fifth and Sinopec Group in sixth. China State Construction Engineering held ninth position last year but it was the thirteenth this year. The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and China Construction Bank acquired positions in the list of top 10 most profitable enterprises. According to the report, the combined revenue of the Fortune Global 500 companies in 2023 amounted to $41 trillion, an increase of 8.4 %from last year.
The Organization Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee has allocated 44 million yuan to assist rescue teams with the flood control and disaster relief work in Beijing, Hebei and Tianjin. Beijing has recorded the heaviest rainfall in 140 years and the massive floods have left 11 dead in Beijing and 9 dead in Hebei Province. The local authorities in Tianjin city were able to evacuate 66,000 people. Mentougou and Fangshan districts in southern and eastern Beijing were said to be the hardest-hit areas in the capital region. In Hebei, the city of Zhuozhou is the worst-affected area, with the floods impacting the lives of 133,913 people. Local authorities have set up 28 emergency rescue teams with a total of 8755 people to help with the rescue operations. According to the Ministry of Emergency Management, various natural disasters that have occurred in July have caused a total of 7.1601 million people to suffer and the economic losses amounted to nearly 8.411 billion yuan.
A group of researchers from the National Astronomical Observatories of China (NAOC), Peking University, University of Nevada, Beijing Normal University, and other institutes from China, the United States and Turkey were able to conduct multi-band observations of a SGR J1935+2154 magnetar and have successfully detected a pulsar radiation from it. The research team has been observing the magnetar for a month with the help of China’s Five hundred-metre Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST). The SGR J1935+2154 magnetar had an explosion on April 28, 2020 and a strong radio burst was captured by the radio telescopes, making it the first known fast radio burst (FRB) phenomenon from within the Milky Way. The study of FRBs is important as powerful fast radio bursts can produce energy equivalent to the sun’s annual output. The researchers were able to find the difference between the phase distribution of the FRB from the pulsar radiations.

SOCIAL MEDIA CHATTER IN CHINA

Troubling culture of weight loss among China’s dance schools: Concern over the fierce competition to qualify for China’s dance schools is taking the internet by surprise. Students face psychological problems during the entrance exam due to their extreme diet for weight loss. In China, admissions into dance schools begin early for students, at the age of 11 or 12. There are only a few dozen specialised schools in China that provide the path towards a professional dance career and once the students are admitted, they begin their journey of receiving professional dance training for the next six to seven years. The entrance exam for these schools focus on physical appearance as well as dance forms. The teachers also urge students to get “as thin as lightning.” With the rising popularity of China's art schools, the exams have become even more competitive.

INDIA WATCH

China has introduced several measures such as tax reduction to solve the problem of unemployment among college graduates and boost the revenue of small and medium sized firms. The government has also been providing favourable measures such as fiscal support and tax reduction for small low profit enterprises and technology based small enterprises.. It has also reduced the payment of employment security funds for disabled people and this policy has been extended till the end of 2027 to reduce the burden on micro companies. These policies have helped enterprises that have been struggling to expand and grow their income. With the budget for 2022-23, the government also introduced the fiscal strategy for the growth of the economy which includes three key points: protectionism through tariffs, incentives for growth of production and infrastructure projects to raise private investments. India offers tax relief both at central and state levels to the private investors. The government has also offered production-linked incentive (PLI) schemes to benefit local as well as foreign firms in each sector. Many incentives have been launched for India’s Special Economic Zones(SEZs) to promote FDI in India such as Tax exemption for offshore banking units in SEZ, relaxation of payment of customs and excise on imports from domestic sources and exemption from minimum alternate tax. The Indian government has similarly been focusing on expanding the manufacturing ecosystem in order to create jobs and reduce the country’s reliance on imports. The optional tax regime introduced in 2020 did not have much impact and the government needs to bring in more incentives such as lowering tax rates and making deductions for targeted groups with low incomes.

Prepared By

Aanchal Budhwar

Aanchal Budhwar is currently pursuing her Masters degree in International Studies from Symbiosis School of International Studies in Pune with a specialisation in Asia Area Studies. She completed her Bachelors degree in English Honours from MCM DAV College, Chandigarh. She is an avid reader and is passionate about learning new languages. She is keen on learning about Asian culture and geopolitics and deciphering the strategic meaning behind the political, diplomatic, cultural, economic and social developments taking place in China and its impact beyond the borders.