Here are five things that happened in China this week

Manyika Kangai

China’s Xi hosts former Taiwan President

Chinese leader Xi Jinping held talks with Ma Ying-jeou, former President of Taiwan. Xi said that people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait belong to the Chinese nation and praised Ma for opposing “Taiwan independence”, promoting cross-strait exchanges and agreeing that both sides of the Strait belong to “one China.” In response, Ma said that although two sides of the strait developed under different systems, the people both belong to the Chinese nation. Ma Ying-jeou, who led Taiwan from 2008 to 2016 is currently in Beijing on an 11-day tour across China.

 

China’s Fitch ratings outlook

China’s Ministry of Finance said that it is “regrettable” to see the decision by Fitch Ratings to downgrade the country’s sovereign credit rating outlook. The ministry made the remarks in response to media queries after the agency decided to maintain China’s sovereign credit rating, while on the same day revising its outlook on China’s sovereign credit rating from stable to negative. The ministry’s statement added that Fitch’s rating system has failed to effectively reflect the positive effects of China’s fiscal policies on boosting economic growth and stabilising the macro leverage ratio in a forward-looking manner.

 

China’s March CPI, PPI

China’s Consumer Price Index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, edged up 0,1 percent year-on-year in March, according to official data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). On a monthly basis, the CPI went down 1 percent in March. China’s Producer Price Index (PPI), which measures costs for goods at the factory gate, decreased by 2,8 percent year-on-year in March. The decrease widened from a 2,7 percent decline in February. On a monthly basis, the PPI edged down 0,1 percent, narrowing from a 0,2 percent decrease a month earlier.

 

China’s Basic Medical Insurance coverage

The number of people covered by China’s Basic Medical Insurance was 1,334 billion at the end of 2023, accounting for over 95 percent of the country’s total population, according to the Report on China’s Medical Insurance System Development in 2023. Nearly 371 million of these people came under the coverage of the Basic Medical Insurance programme for urban employees. The report issued by the National Healthcare Security Administration also showed that nearly 963 million individuals were covered by the Basic Medical Insurance for rural and non-working urban residents.

 

China adds new unicorn enterprises

China added 56 new unicorn enterprises in 2023, which means the country added more than one each week during the period, according to the Hurun Global Unicorn Index 2024 released on Tuesday. The Global Unicorn Index 2024 is a ranking of the world’s start-ups founded after 2000 that are worth at least US$1 billion and not yet listed on a public exchange. There are a total of 1 453 unicorn enterprises in the world, with a total market value of US$4,6 trillion. China alone has 340 unicorn enterprises, ranking second worldwide, while the United States takes first place, with a total of 703. China’s unicorn enterprises are mainly in the sectors of artificial intelligence, semiconductors and new energy. TikTok’s parent company ByteDance retained the title of the world’s most valuable unicorn last year, worth some 1,56 trillion yuan (about US$220 billion).

 

*Manyika Kangai is dedicated to helping African businesses and governments realise the full potential of the vast opportunities that China presents. He has over 18 years of experience facilitating and advising on China-Africa trade and investment deals