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Reporters recently learned from Chery Holding Group that, despite the “chip shortage”, Chery Group still achieved 110,281 car sales in November , a month-on-month growth of 24.8 percent and a year-on-year growth of 8.2 percent. From January to November, Chery Group sold 849,912 cars, increasing by 38.3 percent year on year and hitting a record high in the same period.

The major passenger car brands of Chery Group’s all saw rapid growth in November. Among them, Chery’s high-end brand Exeed sold 5,189 units (including exports), reaching a year–on–year rise of 135.4 percent. A new product of the brand “Chery Tiger 8 Plus” was newly launched, driving the sales volume of Chery (including export) in this month to 76,560 units, increasing by 18.6 percent year on year. A mid-size SUV of the brand Chery Jetour received more than 1,200 orders on 11^th November.

In November, the monthly export of Chery Group exceeded 20,000 units for the seventh time in the year. The cumulative export from January to November was 237,901 units, a year–on–year growth of 137.6 percent, and the annual export is expected to exceed 250,000 units. Chery Group’s sales of new energy products doubled in November, with 88,911 units sold from January to November and an year-on-year increase of  145.2 percent.

Translated by Yuan Mengwen from Foreign Affairs Office of Wuhu Municipal People’s Government 

The first phase of Wuhu Rail Transit Line 2 is about to open and operate, which will be open to public for a three-day trial ride from December 23 to 25. At that time, citizens can scan the code through the Wuhu Rail APP to enter the station for a free trial ride.

It is reported that the trial ride this time includes 11 stations of the first phase of the Rail Transit Line 2, and the trial time is from 9 am to 7 pm since December 23 to 25. Citizens need to download the Wuhu Rail APP in advance, complete the real-name authentication and bind the bank card, then they can scan the code to take the rail transit, reducing waiting time. Before entering the station, passengers are required to display the green health code, including those of the National Integrated Government Service Platform and of other provinces and cities. If the elderly, children and people with visual and hearing disabilities travel alone, they can be checked for their health code by station staff, or they can enter the station by providing paper health green code and negative nucleic acid test proof within 7 days.

 The first phase of Rail Transit Line 2 is about 16 km long with 10 elevated stations and an underground station. It is laid along the city from  east and west and 11 stations were set up, which are Wanchunhu Road Station, Mengxi Road Station, Huizhou Road Station, Haiyan Road Station, Zhengwuzhongxin Station, Yuncong Road station, Shenshan Park Station, Wuhu Railway Station, Shenshankou Station, Wenhua Road Station and Jiuzi Square Station.

Translated by Yuan Mengwen from Foreign Affairs Office of Wuhu Municipal People’s Government 

On December 17, it is learned from the press conference held by the Municipal Housing and Urban-Rural Development Bureau that Wuhu has always adhered to the principle that houses are for living in, not for speculation. The city has implemented a combination of measures to establish a mechanism for adjusting the prices of land and housing, keeping the overall stable operation of the real estate market.

According to statistics, from January to November, Wuhu has witnessed an increasing investment in the development of real estate market year-on-year. The city has completed an investment of 52.327 billion yuan in the market, a year-on-year increase of 16.9%, ranking third in the province in terms of its growth rate. Housing prices remained stable overall. In November, the average price of commercial housing in the city was 9,940.63 yuan per square meter, a year-on-year increase of 4.03%. The sales area of commercial housing was 6,656,400 square meters, a year-on-year increase of 37%, ranking first in the province concerning its growth rate. The listing of commercial housing has been accelerated as well, and the pre-sale area of commercial housing approved by the municipal government was 5,228,100 square meters, up 29.25% year-on-year.

Since the beginning of this year, Wuhu has continuously optimized the land supply structure, and selected different transfer measures in the auction of the use right of state-owned land, effectively preventing high land price from causing high housing price and disrupting market expectations. In the pricing of commercial housing, we strictly implement the filing of commercial housing prices, and guide real estate developers to make scientific and reasonable pricing through stringent housing price filing management. Meanwhile, we implement the notarization and lottery sales system of newly-built commercial housing and improve the pre-sale system. We continue to strengthen policy interpretation and market information disclosure, and improve the online media consultation mechanism. While guiding the positive public opinion, we strictly crack down on all kinds of chaos in the real estate market, strengthen the supervision system of risky real estate funds, effectively remove disputes and risks of overdue delivery of real estate projects, and resolutely safeguard the interests of the people and social stability.

Translated by Wang Mengxiao from Foreign Affairs Office of Wuhu Municipal People’s Government

On December 17, Shan Xiangqian, secretary of the Municipal Party Committee, went to China Postal Express & Logistics Co., Ltd. and Beijing R&D Headquarters of LI Auto Inc. for investment promotion. Municipal officials Zhang Dong and Yao Kai attended.

China Postal Express & Logistics is mainly engaged in domestic and international express and contract logistics. By the end of 2020, the company had a registered capital of RMB 25 billion and nearly 160,000 employees. Shan Xiangqian introduced Wuhu’s accelerating the construction of Air Cargo Transportation Hub, National Port-based Logistics Hub and Express Demonstration City to the company. He said that in recent years, Wuhu has seized the historical opportunity of higher-quality integrated development in the Yangtze River Delta, given full play to the advantages of the golden waterway of the Yangtze River, actively built a regional logistics center integrating water, land and air in the Yangtze River Delta, so as to smooth the artery of regional economic integration with an intelligent and efficient modern logistics system. This year, Wuhu has deeply implemented the No.1 Project of “Investment Attraction and Talents Recruitment”, and taken multiple measures to create a relatively “preferential”, absolutely convenient, safety-oriented and equal business environment. We welcome enterprises like China Postal Express & Logistics to Wuhu for investment and cooperation, and the municipal party committee and municipal government will do their best to provide active, thoughtful and considerate services.

Ma Xiaoqun, general manager of China Postal Express & Logistics, said that Wuhu has a strong development momentum and we have laid a solid foundation for bilateral cooperation at the macro level. Next, we should focus on finding common ground of the industry, and promote substantial progress in bilateral cooperation through careful planning and in-depth connection.

Founded in 2015, LI Auto Inc. specializes in designing, developing, manufacturing and selling high-end intelligent electric vehicles, acting as a new representative of electric vehicles in China. Shan Xiangqian came to the company’s R&D headquarters in Beijing to learn more about the company’s development path, technological advantages, future plans, etc., and chose a car of LI for a test drive. He expressed the hope that on the basis of the consensus reached earlier, the two sides would speed up the setting of phased goals, specify details of cooperation, and promote LI’s participation in the development of automobile industry in Wuhu. We will provide all-factor guarantee to support LI to grow bigger and stronger in Wuhu, according to him.

The senior executives of LI highly praised Wuhu’s open-mindedness, pragmatic and efficient working style, and they were full of confidence in the future cooperation between the two sides and put forward some relevant suggestions.

Translated by Wang Mengxiao from Foreign Affairs Office of Wuhu Municipal People’s Government

Policy fine-tuning likely in energy sector to maintain production, growth

Economic stability will be the top priority of China’s policymakers next year, as they are expected to roll out supportive measures ahead of schedule to shore up growth against strong headwinds and will likely set 5 percent as the bottom line for GDP growth for 2022, experts said on Sunday.

Policymakers will intensify fiscal spending to boost domestic demand and increase infrastructure investment and are likely to fine-tune regulatory measures in the energy sector to stabilize production and growth, they said.

China’s top leadership acknowledged that the country is facing threefold pressure from contraction of demand, supply shocks and weaker expectations, and it pledged to safeguard economic stability amid rising domestic and external challenges at the tone-setting annual Central Economic Work Conference, which concluded on Friday.

Top policymakers at the meeting decided that supportive policies should be implemented ahead of schedule, and all regions and departments should actively roll out policies conducive to economic stability, according to a statement released after the meeting.

Experts said that the emphasis on economic stability signals that China will pursue a more pro-growth policy to avoid deep economic slowdown, as the world’s second-largest economy is likely to face strong downward pressure in the first half of next year before rebounding in the second half.

Most economists agreed that setting a reasonable growth target for next year is important for the government to better anchor the weakened market expectations. Policy support needs to be further intensified, because the Chinese economy may continue to be threatened by weaker growth of consumption and investment, disruptions of the supply chain, resurgence of the COVID-19 pandemic and the negative spillover effect of developed economies exiting their ultra-loose policies, they said.

Zhang Lianqi, a member of the Standing Committee of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, China’s top political advisory body, said China may set next year’s GDP growth target at around 5.5 percent year-on-year, with 5 percent growth expected to be the bottom line.

“Stability will be the top focus of economic policies in 2022,” Zhang said.

The key economic meeting also stressed the importance of strengthening policy coordination, sticking with a systemic approach and improving policy effectiveness, which were seen as signs that policymakers will work to avoid any negative effect of its regulatory policies that could weigh on economic growth, experts said.

Han Wenxiu, a senior official with the Central Committee for Financial and Economic Affairs, said on Saturday that the government should be cautious about unveiling policies that could trigger economic contraction. The government should also avoid launching policies that are reasonable separately but could have negative effects as a whole, he added.

Wu Chaoming, chief economist at Chasing Securities, said that the country is expected to fine-tune regulations in areas such as the property market and capital expansion in certain sectors to foster well-regulated and healthy development, instead of launching stern regulatory moves that could trigger contractions of economic activities.

It is necessary to prevent industrial regulations from diluting macro policy support and aggravating economic downside risks, Wu said.

Looking forward, a more proactive fiscal policy can be expected as the government will launch additional tax and fee cuts to alleviate financial burdens on smaller enterprises and ensure stable employment. Public spending and the issuance of local government bonds will also be accelerated to boost infrastructure investment, said Wen Bin, chief researcher at China Minsheng Bank.

China’s monetary policy will maintain a flexible stance to ensure ample liquidity, and additional reduction of banks’ reserve requirement ratio and interest rate cuts remain viable options of the Chinese central bank if the economy further decelerates in the first half of next year, Wen said.

CPC leadership highlights ‘stability’ as priority for economic work next year

China can leverage more policies to maintain economic stability and prevent financial risks, amid the rise in coronavirus infections and global inflationary pressure, International Monetary Fund experts and former finance officials said.

The country’s economic performance has been better than the rest of the world’s, because it has more policy space to respond to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, including stronger fiscal and monetary measures, they said.

These policies will help China’s economy recover better than other countries, Steven Barnett, senior representative of the IMF in China, said during a virtual seminar on Wednesday.

In the World Economic Outlook report published in October, IMF experts said new challenges may emerge due to the faster-than-expected monetary tightening of the US Federal Reserve and underestimations of inflationary pressure.

Inflationary pressure is mainly driven by firmer demand, commodity price pressures and supply chain disruptions, IMF economists said at the seminar.

Christoffer Koch, an economist from the IMF’s research department, said central banks can generally get through transitory inflationary pressures and avoid tightening until there is more clarity on underlying price dynamics. However, they should be prepared to act quickly if the recovery is faster than expected or the risk of “rising inflation expectations becomes tangible”, he said.

The Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, the Party’s core leadership, held a meeting on Monday that highlighted “stability” as the priority for economic work next year.

The People’s Bank of China, the central bank, announced on Monday a 50 basis point cut in the reserve requirement ratio for almost all financial institutions, effective Dec 15, to inject 1.2 trillion yuan ($189 billion) liquidity into financial markets.

More policies are expected to be released after the Central Economic Work Conference, and economists have predicted further easing measures to prevent a hard landing of the economy.

“We may see another 50 basis point RRR cut in the first half of 2022, but still view the likelihood of a policy rate cut as quite small, due to elevated production-price inflation and still rising consumer-price inflation,” said Lu Ting, chief economist in China at Nomura Securities.

Wei Benhua, former deputy head of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange and former IMF executive director for China, said that China has adopted a monetary policy that is suitable for the nation’s conditions. A prudent monetary policy will better support the real economy without the need for aggressive easing.

The central bank has also established a risk-warning mechanism after learning lessons from the global financial crisis, Wei said. China has taken note of the risks of an early retreat from quantitative easing measures adopted by central banks in some developed countries.

Guan Tao, global chief economist at BOC International and a former official at the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, said disruption to global supply chains caused by the pandemic could mean sustained inflationary pressure.

“Central banks might have underestimated the inflationary risk,” Guan said, adding that the effects of aggressive monetary easing have been accumulating since the 2008 global financial crisis. If financial markets cannot absorb inflation, price rises in the real economy could lead to significant issues, he added.

IMF economist Koch said to avoid “taper tantrum” scenarios, which usually result in spillovers such as the shifting of capital flows and foreign exchange rate fluctuations, monetary authorities need to focus on forward guidance and communication. Policy normalization from advanced economies’ central banks must also be taken into consideration by the authorities, Koch said.

Kristalina Georgieva, IMF managing director, said at the conclusion of the Sixth “1+6″Roundtable on Monday that China had “achieved a truly remarkable recovery, but its growth momentum has been slowing notably”.

“As China is a vital engine for global growth, taking strong actions to support high-quality growth will help not only China, but the world,” she said.

A Chery employee installs parts in a vehicle at the company’s plant in Wuhu, Anhui province. [Photo/Xinhua]

China had 393 million motor vehicles and 479 million registered drivers by the end of November, respectively, 1.64 times and 1.85 times of the numbers 10 years ago, the Ministry of Public Security said on Thursday. 

Thursday was also the 10th National Traffic Safety Day. According to the Traffic Management Bureau of the ministry, nearly 700 traffic police and auxiliary traffic police died at their posts.

Although both the number of vehicles and drivers kept growing and the traffic pressure continued to rise, the death toll of road traffic accidents in every 10,000 vehicles showed an overall downward trend, it said. 

To better facilitate the public and benefit enterprises, starting from Dec 10, four traffic-related measures will be implemented nationwide, and they are: applying and getting the electronic driving license, registration of second-hand car transactions in different places, examining and issuing electronic traffic code for trucks via “Traffic management 12123” mobile applications and accessing traffic accident evidence materials online.

The electronic driving license has covered 200 cities by now, attracting widespread attention and popularity, and more than 50 million drivers have obtained electronic driving licenses, it said.

The business of examining and issuing electronic traffic codes for trucks online has covered 245 cities and drivers can apply directly online. About 60,000 such codes have been issued by traffic regulators, further empowering the freight transport industry and helping build a modern circulation system.

On November 26, the 2021 annual meeting of Nanjing Metropolitan Media Alliance and the activity of “ President and chief editor to look at Lai ‘an” was held in Lai ‘an County of Chuzhou. Presidents and chief editors of 8 cities, including Nanjing, Zhenjiang, Yangzhou, Huaian, Wuhu, Maanshan, Chuzhou and Xuancheng gathered together to summarize the working achievements of the alliance in the past year, and discussed the key work of Nanjing Metropolitan Media Alliance in the next year.

Nanjing Metropolitan Media Alliance was established in October last year, by 10 member units, including Nanjing Daily, Huaian Daily, Yangzhou Daily, Zhenjiang Daily, Wuhu Media Center, Maanshan Daily , Chuzhou Daily, Xuancheng Daily, Liyang Media Center, Jintan Media Center, forming a “8 + 2” pattern. With the expansion of the influence of Nanjing Metropolitan Media Alliance, more units are applying to join it. On the eve of the conference, the alliance secretariat received an application from the Media Center of Lai ‘an County and each member unit deliberated and approved the application. Since then, the alliance ushered in a new pattern of “8+2+N”. At the meeting, the president and chief editor of each member unit of the alliance summarized the conducted activities since the beginning of this year. Meanwhile, suggestions and plans were put forward for the operation mechanism of “Manuscript sharing platform of Nanjing Metropolitan Media Alliance”, which was launched in the second half of this year.

After the meeting, the activity of “ President and Chief Editor to look at Lai ‘an” began immediately. Chief editors and reporters of the alliance member units walked into this “bridgehead” of cooperation between Jiangsu and Anhui Provinces and interviews were conducted on the new functional areas adjacent to Dingshan Mountain and Chahe River, Chahe Economic Development Zone, Chishan Lake Wetland Park, Laianhongling section of Jianghuai Ridge line, to truly understand the new achievements of Lai’an County in the process of integrating in to the Yangtze River Delta.  

Translated by Yuan Mengwen from Foreign Affairs Office of Wuhu Municipal People’s Government

    The 2021 World Manufacturing Convention, a major platform of “investment attraction and talents recruitment“, concluded in Hefei yesterday. Wuhu has signed 99 projects this year with a total investment of 93.04 billion yuan, ranking second in the province.

    During the convention, Wuhu’s delegation visited exhibitions, and witnessed project introduction and promotion. At the World Manufacturing Convention, the city has gained great achievements in investment attraction.

    It is learned that among the projects signed by the city at the World Manufacturing Convention, there are 6 projects with an investment of 5-10 billion yuan, totaling 35.6 billion; 23 projects of 1-5 billion yuan, with a total investment of 32.51 billion yuan; 28 projects of 0.5-1 billion yuan, with a total investment of 16.18 billion yuan; and 42 projects below 0.5 billion yuan, with a total investment of 8.75 billion yuan.

    A number of major manufacturing projects with high level, good benefits and excellent quality have been signed at the convention, including the capital increase project of polylactic acid with a total investment of 6.6 billion yuan, the research base project of core components of large unmanned helicopters of Shenzhen United Aircraft with a total investment of 2 billion yuan, and the GIF automatic gearbox project with a total investment of 1.5 billion yuan.

Translated by Wang Mengxiao from Foreign Affairs Office of Wuhu Municipal People’s Government

    Some might say the world is at a crossroad? But the road ahead is clearly marked “global peace and multilateral global trade”. The problem is that not everyone can clearly see the road ahead and has the determination to press on.

    The Chinese leadership does, though, and it is providing a beacon of hope for global togetherness.

    China’s economic integration with the world has reached a level where it can lead the way. Free trade deals abound, the Belt and Road Initiative now includes an increasing number of countries across Asia and Europe and China plays a leading role on the global stage with its steadfast advocacy of multilaterism and shared development for building a community with a shared future for mankind.

    Many countries around the world could learn from China’s remarkable economic success story and its continuous opening up to the world. Perhaps more than anything, it is its strong leadership of China that must be admired around the world. And it is the backbone-like presence and character of the Communist Party of China that have ensured the country’s economic advancement.

    The Party is also the guarantee that China will further integrate with the global economy as it transforms into a modern socialist country.

    While China and its economic achievements are most definitely respected and admired, if not envied, around the world, there needs to be a better understanding and recognition of the contribution the CPC has made and is making to global trade and world peace.

    At a time when the British and the French are squabbling about fishing rights, larger Brexit dark clouds loom, and the US economy remains sluggish at best, all eyes should be on China and the CPC.

    Indeed, Western leaders, media and political observers should be focusing on the CPC’s big events such as the Sixth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee, for it will prove pivotal to promoting national rejuvenation.

    After leading China to achieve the first centenary goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects by 2020, the Party has now embarked on the path toward realizing the second centenary goal of developing a modern great socialist society by the middle of this century.

    During this process, China will make further progress toward a world where multilateral trade will be the norm. The protectionist policies of the Donald Trump administration have not yet been abandoned by the Joe Biden administration. Nor has the Biden administration publicly endorsed multilateralism.

    Sadly, across Europe the economic picture is equally murky.

    Yet China remains resolutely determined to establish a rejuvenated world trade system, with multilateral trade at its core, through its own domestically-driven economic rejuvenation. A key contribution to global trade has been and continues to be the Chinese leadership’s commitment to further open up the Chinese economy, something that governments around the world need to also embrace.

    In addition, national champions or more accurately industries of the future are also a key feature of China’s growth strategy. President Xi Jinping has for quite some time been highlighting the high-tech sector and innovation as central to the country’s continued economic development.

    Careful nurturing and support for certain key industries is very critical to China’s approach to economic development and will continue to be so. This is something that is still far too easily dismissed by Western governments as “the nanny state”. But in reality, this continues to create opportunities and promote prosperity across China.

    To ensure that the fruits of development can be enjoyed by all, China’s leaders are now pursuing common prosperity which, rather than being robbing the rich to give to the poor, aims to promote a sense of well-being for all the people through fairer distribution of the country’s development dividends. Unequivocally, anti-poverty, the Chinese leadership is also, crucially, not anti-wealth.

    Perhaps the key word that explains China’s spectacular success over the years is stability. It is the bedrock of Chinese society and based on the maturing governance capability of the CPC, which is of the people, for the people and representing the people of China.

    President Xi Jinping, who is also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, encapsulated the historical significance of the Party in his speeches to mark the 100th anniversary of the founding of the CPC and the 110th anniversary of the 1911 Revolution, in which he highlighted the strong leadership of the CPC since its founding in 1921.

    Decisive leadership and stability go hand-in-hand, and the CPC’s strong leadership has enabled the country to weather many a storm. With the well-being of the Chinese people its raison d’etre, the CPC maintains its strong roots across Chinese society, and represents every region and every ethnic group.

So, with the Sixth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee going on, what should we expect in terms of fresh policy initiatives aimed at realizing national rejuvenation?

    Expect an even sharper focus on achieving common prosperity where everyone has a stake in the country, and can avail of all the opportunities. But more specifically, expect more support for those industrial sectors of the future such as renewable energy, high technology and the arts and entertainment. It is a hand-on approach to rejuvenation that is driving the Chinese economy.