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Chinas preschool parent-child market sees rapid expansion

(Peoples Daily Online)15:12, July 10, 2020

Chinas pre-school parent-child market is expanding rapidly, as a growing number of young parents take a more scientific approach to parenting.

(Photo/Peoples Daily)

We spend a large portion of the family budget on raising our kid, said Ma Xin, who lives in Dongcheng district, Beijing, and has a 4-year-old daughter. The couple spend almost half of their income every month on better raising their daughter.

Besides the basic expenses such as food and clothing, we also spend money on buying cartoon books and toys, watching cartoons and early education courses, Ma said.

The investment in preschool parent-child consumption has been increasing year on year for new parents born after 1995, with annual compound growth of per capita consumption on Tmall, an e-commerce platform, reaching 61 percent in the past three years.

The structure of preschool parent-child consumption is moving from daily supplies to the fields of education and entertainment. A Tmall report showed that parental investment in early education is coming very early on in children, and sales of toy books and educational toys are growing rapidly.

The preschool parent-child consumption market is characterized by high user stickiness, different buying and consuming groups, and a strong sense of science and technology, according to Cai Liuyang, a professor of psychology at Tsinghua University.

Meanwhile, one mother in Shanghai pointed out that the key for preschool parent-child consumption is edutainment, where children can learn as well as can play, and parents also can participate.

As more and more audio programs have become popular with parents, sales of intelligent speakers featuring childrens mode and voice control on Tmall have increased by 121 percent in the past three years.

Data from market consultancy company iiMedia Research indicated that the number of children aged from 0 to 6 reached 100 million in 2018, and the number of clients in early education institutions has also been increasing.

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Air Chinas Moscow-Beijing flight suspended over COVID-19 cases

(Xinhua)16:44, July 10, 2020

BEIJING, July 10 (Xinhua) — Chinas civil aviation regulator said Friday that an Air China flight from Moscow to Beijing would be suspended after over five passengers tested positive for COVID-19 on a July 4 flight.

The suspension of flight CA910 will last for one week, starting July 13, and is the fourth of its kind ever imposed following the introduction of a reward and suspension mechanism by the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) on June 4.

According to the CAAC policy, if all inbound passengers of an airline test negative for novel coronavirus for three weeks in a row, the operating airline will be allowed to increase its number of flights to two per week.

If the number of passengers testing positive reaches five, the airlines flights will be suspended for a week. The suspension will last for four weeks if the number of passengers testing positive reaches 10.

The CAAC also said that Air China is not allowed to transfer the original quota of flight CA910 to other routes.

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U.S. business leaders in China urge both countries to overcome political differences to fight pandemic

(Xinhua)10:49, July 09, 2020

BEIJING, July 8 (Xinhua) — U.S. business leaders in China have called on both countries to overcome their political differences and strengthen cooperation to fight the COVID-19 pandemic and back a global economic recovery, according to a recent report by the South China Morning Post.

Collaboration between U.S. and Chinese subnational governments has been excellent, but were disappointed at the national level, the SCMPs report on Monday quoted Ker Gibbs, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai, as saying.

Gibbs made the remarks at a webinar on Monday, during which Chinese and U.S. representatives of business, medicine, non-governmental organizations and other areas discussed a new report titled China-U.S. non-government cooperation in response to COVID-19: Current conditions, challenges and prospects.

The report, released by Beijing-based think tank Center for China and Globalization, said efforts to combat the pandemic by China and the United States, the two largest economies in the world, will have a crucial impact on pandemic containment and post-pandemic economic recovery.

Facing the grave threats to humanity, China and the U.S. should form a peaceful and harmonious bilateral relationship to forge better leadership on global governance and trade and economic development that will make both winners, instead of falling into zero-sum thinking and unbridled competition, it said.

President of the American Chamber of Commerce in China Alan Beebe, who also attended the webinar, noted that national interests and politics continued to intervene in the public health crisis.

Covid-19 does not recognize politics or borders. This is a matter of science, Beebe was quoted by the SCMP as saying.

The chamber has been working closely with U.S. and Chinese local governments to resume production over the past few months, Beebe said, adding, we should continue to work, especially on non-government cooperation, to really focus on human lives and human health and economy to minimize the impact of the pandemic.

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U.S. business leader says phase-one trade deal with China in smooth implementation

By XiongMaoling,HuYousong (Xinhua)14:39, July 09, 2020

WASHINGTON, July 8 (Xinhua) — The implementation of the China-U.S. phase-one economic and trade agreement is proceeding smoothly, effectively, U.S.-China Business Council (USCBC) president Craig Allen has said.

So far as I know, that is proceeding smoothly, effectively, exactly as planned, said Allen, whose organization represents over 200 American companies that do business with China.

On the policy objectives, things are going well, Allen said, noting that U.S. company, indeed the U.S. government, recognizes that great progress has been made and that opportunities have been produced for foreign companies, including American companies.

So theres a real correlation between Chinese interest and U.S. interest here, he said.

Noting that he has seen very good progress in Chinese imports of U.S. agricultural products since April, the U.S. business leader, however, said the overall results of trade expansion are mixed, due to the unforeseeable consequences of COVID-19.

On the direct side, we see a definite slowdown in demand for imported products in China and that affects everyone, he said.

On the indirect side, I would note that for example, energy prices are very low. And so therefore, even if you had a very high volume of imports, the value of those imports would be low, Allen said.

We have to recognize the realities of COVID-19, he said, noting that both direct and indirect impact needs to be faced squarely and honestly. You cant wish COVID-19 away.

Amid strained China-U.S. ties, Allen thinks it is especially important for the two sides to implement the trade deal fully and completely. There are many other tensions within the relationship, but we need to keep stability where we can find stability, he said.

According to USCBCs estimates, approximately 2.4 million Americans are involved in U.S.-China trade or investment. I think that the last thing that the U.S.-China relationship needs is a disruption in trade and investment, which will hurt both of our citizens, Allen said.

We need to think of the people, the workers, the farmers, and the ranchers that are active in U.S.- China trade, he said.

We should be careful to maintain the foundation of the relationship, which, he argued, is largely economy, trade and commerce based.

Both of our Chinese history and American history show that our countries are strongest and most prosperous when our countries are open and welcoming trade and investment, Allen told Xinhua.

The United States and China together account for 40 percent of the global economy, Allen said. We have mutual responsibilities to meet our commitments, and mutual responsibilities to the global trade, to minimize disruption and maximize economic value for all.

Noting that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is predicting a relatively robust recovery of over 8 percent in 2021 for China, Allen said that makes Chinas role as a global engine of economic growth even more important as the global economy struggles to recover from a pandemic.

Even with the sped-up supply chain shift amid the pandemic, he said almost all USCBC member companies are increasing investments in the Chinese market.

Most of our companies are large investors in China, and they are there because the Chinese market is very large and growing rapidly, Allen said.

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China’s food delivery market expected to reach 1 trillion yuan within three years

(Peoples Daily Online)16:22, July 09, 2020

China’s food delivery market is expected to expand within the next three years to reach 1 trillion yuan (about $142 billion), according to an industry report.

(Photo/Xinhua)

Online food delivery is estimated to account for about 20 percent of the country’s catering industry this year, said the report released by the China Hospitality Association and the Meituan Research Institute under Chinese food delivery giant Meituan Dianping.

China’s food delivery market hit 653.6 billion yuan in 2019, 39.3 percent more than the year before, according to statistics from iResearch.

Last year, the transaction volume of Meituan’s food delivery business increased 38.9 percent to 392.7 billion yuan, according to the company’s financial report. The daily average number of transactions rose 36.4 percent to 23.9 million, while the average value per order of its food delivery business grew 1.8 percent year-on-year.

By the end of 2019, the number of food delivery consumers reached 460 million, accounting for 50.7 percent of the country’s total number of internet users.

Meituan added around 1 million new couriers between Jan. 20 and May 24, playing an effective role in creating jobs.

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Decoupling from China will come at cost to American business

(Peoples Daily Online)14:41, July 02, 2020

On June 18, U.S. President Donald Trump said on Twitter that “the U.S. certainly does maintain a policy option, under various conditions, of a complete decoupling from China.” U.S. media remarked that it was Trump’s most forceful statement yet on the souring ties with China.

However, the attitudes of U.S. enterprises show just how difficult it will be for the U.S. to exercise this option.

Politics cannot change China’s important role in global supply chain

About 80 percent of the world’s traded goods are transported through ports. Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, many American enterprises are hoping to receive goods from China quickly.

While Donald Trump urges American companies to “ditch China,” many of them can’t get their goods fast enough, according to a Bloomberg report on June 28.

The articles cited the example of the container ship Melina, which set sail on June 24 from a Chinese port near Shenzhen with products bound for U.S. households, and will dock in Los Angeles on July 6 after a 12-day nonstop journey — a week ahead of a larger ship doing the same route.

Melina is operated by Israel-based Zim Integrated Shipping Services Ltd., one of the largest container shipping companies in the world. Zim, Honolulu-based Matson Inc. and CMA CGM SA of France are among those offering the express service between China and the U.S.

The Bloomberg article also pointed out that links like this show the difficulty President Trump faces if he tries to achieve a “complete decoupling” of the world’s largest economies.

The article also mentioned Rural King Farm Home Stores, which has about 120 stores across the U.S.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Rural King was no different to other traditional retailers, experiencing shortages of toilet paper, paper towels and hand sanitizer.

But thanks to a flexible supply chain and close relationships with vendors in China and elsewhere in Asia, it managed to keep most items stocked.

Rural King stores sold 300 trampolines in one day recently, according to Heath Pittman, international logistics manager at the Illinois-based retailer, who added that luckily for him, he has 100 to 200 suppliers in China.

He Weiwen, executive council member of the China Association of International Trade, said that in economic terms, there is no second China, and it will be impossible for the world to decouple from China, and politically, the global industrial chain won’t change in the way the U.S. wants it to. In the end, it will be the U.S. which will suffer the most, including its high-tech sector.

Neither COVID-19 nor trade war can stop American enterprises from entering Chinese market

For the U.S., China is irreplaceable.

Last August, Trump ordered American enterprises to withdraw their businesses from China. Days later, Costco, the second largest retailer in the U.S. opened its first Chinese store in Shanghai. On April 22, 2020, multinational oil and gas corporation ExxonMobil launched a chemical complex in Huizhou, southern China’s Guangdong province, with a total investment of about $10 billion. On May 19, U.S. industrial conglomerate Honeywell’s emerging market headquarters and innovation center opened in central Chinas Wuhan city.

According to a white paper published by the American Chamber of Commerce in China (AmCham China) on May 30, one-third of U.S. companies in China plan to expand their investment by more than 10 percent. According to a poll conducted by AmCham China and AmCham Shanghai published in April, about 70percent of the 25 American companies in China with global revenues of more than $500 million did not plan to relocate from China, even amid COVID-19.

In the post-pandemic era, China’s economic recovery has been faster than the U.S. market expected, which will give confidence to American companies looking to expand their investment in China.

Yahoo Finance said in a June 27 article titled “Why China will emerge from COVID-19 stronger than the US” that “like the U.S., China is pumping hundreds of billions of dollars into fast-tracking medical research for vaccines and therapeutics, but it is also spending more on contact tracing, hospitals and equipment. That spend could be considered an investment for when the next epidemic comes along.”

Morgan Stanley economists expect China to be the only major economy to grow its GDP in 2020, and the middle and upper middle classes are expected to continue to grow very strongly over the next decade.

“China will recover faster than the U.S.,” said the Yahoo article, adding that the U.S. should get its own house in order.

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Chinese COVID-19 vaccine approved to enter Phase III clinical trial in Brazil

(Global Times)16:55, July 09, 2020

Beijing-based Sinovac Life Sciences Co announced on Monday that its COVID-19 vaccine collaboration with Brazilian immunobiologic producer Instituto Butantan has received approval from the Brazilian regulator for phase III clinical trials.

The Brazilian National Regulatory Agency, Anvisa, granted approval to a phase III clinical trial sponsored by Instituto Butantan on Friday to test the efficacy and safety of the inactivated COVID-19 vaccine developed by Sinovac Life Sciences Co in Brazil. This trial aims to be a pivotal study to support the licensing of the product, according to an official statement the company sent to the Global Times.

The trial will recruit nearly 9,000 healthcare professionals to work in COVID-19 specialized facilities in 12 clinical sites in several states in Brazil. The recruitment is scheduled to start this month after ethical approval is obtained from each clinical site.

The study will be a double-blind placebo-controlled trial with participants randomly allocated a 1:1 ratio of placebo and vaccine, according to the announcement from Instituto Butantan on Thursday.

The immunization schedule is two doses of intramuscular injections (deltoid) with a 14-day interval, it said.

For efficacy, the study aims to detect COVID-19 cases, defined as symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infections, after the second week post-immunization schedule.

For safety and immunogenicity, participants are categorized in two age groups, adults (18-59 years) and elderly (60 years and above). All participants will be followed for up to 12 months.

Anvisa reviewed the detailed manufacturing information, the results of the previous two clinical trials of the vaccine candidate, and late-stage trial protocols developed by Instituto Butantan. It took only about two weeks for the agency to fast-track the application due to the public health emergency.

The review was conducted at the highest standards and met with international rules. Anvisa is qualified as a fully functional regulatory agency for the WHO prequalification process. The agency is also a full member of the International Council for Harmonization of Technical Requirements for Pharmaceuticals for Human Use (ICH), according to the statement.

The phase III clinical trial approval is a demonstration that the Sinovac and Instituto Butantan partnership is an efficient collaboration, offering hope to save lives worldwide, commented Dr Dimas Covas, director of Instituto Butantan.

We are pleased to advance to Phase III trials with Instituto Butantan, which will take us one step further in our commitment to develop vaccines for global use and our mission of supplying vaccines to eliminate human diseases, Weidong Yin, chairman, president and CEO of Sinovac, commented in the statement.

Sinovac announced on June 13 positive preliminary results in Phase I/II clinical trials for the inactivated vaccine, which showed favorable immunogenicity and safety profiles.

The Phase II results showed that the vaccine induces neutralizing antibodies within 14 days. The neutralizing antibody seroconversion rate is above 90 percent.

Brazil has become a new epicenter of the pandemic. The country has reported more than 1,600,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases as of Monday.

The cooperation is expected to achieve a win-win outcome as a vaccine can help end the grim epidemic in Brazil. China, in contrast, has become less favorable as a late-stage clinical trial hub, given its smaller number of new cases.

The two parties aim to establish extensive collaboration in technology licensing, market authorization and commercialization of the vaccine, according to an announcement Sinovac sent to the Global Times on Tuesday.

On June 29, Sao Paulo state Governor Joao Doria said 9,000 volunteers have already been registered to test the vaccine against COVID-19, Reuters reported.

Instituto Butantan will spend 85 million reals ($17.1 million) to conduct trials on 9,000 Brazilian volunteers, the governor said, adding that if the vaccine proves effective, it could be mass-produced in S茫o Paulo, starting from the first half of next year, and administered to millions of Brazilians free of charge.

The company has partnered with several companies outside of China for phase III efficacy studies, Sinovac told the Global Times.

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5G empowers oil, gas production in NW Chinas Taklimakan Desert

(Xinhua)10:15, July 08, 2020

URUMQI, July 8 (Xinhua) — A 5G base station that recently began operation in the heart of Taklimakan Desert is expected to help in the construction of an intelligent oilfield in the desert.

Located in northwest Chinas Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Taklimakan Desert is a major petroliferous region in China.

Sinopec Northwest Oilfield Company, the explorer of the oilfield, said its Shunbei Oilfield is deemed Asias deepest onshore oilfield. It is located in the heart of the Taklimakan Desert. The exploration and exploitation activities in the oilfield are challenging as oil is usually found more than 7,300 meters underground, the company added.

According to Li Zhengjun, a company official, the application of 5G will provide strong support for the oilfields information control system and help realize dynamic management, automatic monitoring, unattended operation and emergency response of the oil and gas production system.

Shunbei Oilfield is one of the major domestic oilfields of Sinopec, the second largest oil and gas producer in China.

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Chinas Wuhan to build COVID-19 convalescent plasma pool

(Xinhua)10:18, July 08, 2020

WUHAN, July 7 (Xinhua) — Chinas Wuhan plans to build a pool of convalescent plasma collected from donors who have recovered from COVID-19, to help more patients.

Wuhan Blood Center will be responsible for the plasma collection, according to sources with the center.

Over the past five months, a total of 1,319 recovered COVID-19 patients have donated 460,000 ml plasma in Wuhan, capital of central Chinas Hubei Province. The city once hard hit by the epidemic has also received 17,500 ml of donated plasma from other Chinese provinces, according to the center.

Since April 10, Wuhan has offered 85,850 ml of plasma to cities and provinces including Beijing, Harbin and Jilin.

Convalescent plasma, processed from the plasma collected from recovered COVID-19 patients, contains a large number of protective antibodies, which studies have proven effective in treating critical cases.

In February, plasma therapy was included in Chinas diagnosis and treatment guidelines on COVID-19. Chinese health officials have also called for plasma donation to help fight the disease.

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Chinese company completes deepest oil well on land in Asia

(Peoples Daily Online)14:22, July 06, 2020

China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec Group) announced on July 3 that it had completed an 8,725-meter oil well in Shunbei oil-gas field in northwest Chinas Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. It is the deepest land oil well in Asia, Chinanews.com reported.

A birds eye view of the Shunbei oil-gas field. (Photo/Chinanews.com)

Breaking the previous record set by an 8,588-meter oil well, also located in Shunbei oil-gas field, the newly drilled oil well shows that China leads the world in deep well drilling.

Shunbei oil-gas field is home to nearly 40 oil wells with a depth of more than 8,000 meters. According to statistics, the oil-gas field produced 2.1 million tons of crude oil and 625 million cubic meters of natural gas in the first half of the year.

Buried over 8,000 meters underground, drilling is difficult due to the complex geological structure and high temperatures at Shunbei oil-gas field. To address these issues, engineers at Sinopec have developed tools to reduce friction and improve accuracy of drilling.