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The success of China's electric vehicles (EV) is "the success of globalization," and Chinese-made EVs are internationally popular due to their good quality, production capacity and cost controls, instead of subsidies, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said on Wednesday.

"We hope that the EU side will abide by WTO rules, honor its commitment to market openness, respect the laws of the market economy and the innovation efforts of Chinese enterprises, prudently use trade remedy tools and jointly safeguard China-EU economic and trade cooperation," Wang Wenbin, the spokesperson, said during a regular press conference, when asked about the EU's probe into Chinese EVs.

Across the global EV supply chains, the interests of all parties are intertwined, Wang said, adding that Chinese EVs have contributed to global green and low-carbon development.

As to China's anti-dumping investigations into imported brandy from the EU, Wang reiterated China's commitment to a high level of opening-up and upholding the principles of the market economy and WTO rules, and this will not change.

"We are ready to provide an open, inclusive, transparent and non-discriminatory business environment to foreign companies, including those from the EU, to conduct trade and investment cooperation in China," Wang said.

The Ministry of Commerce (MOCFOM) announced on January 5 that it will launch an anti-dumping probe into some imported brandy from the EU. The investigation was initiated at the request of Chinese companies, an official in charge of the MOFCOM's Trade Remedy and Investigation Bureau said.

Upon receipt of the application, the MOFCOM examined it in accordance with Chinese laws and regulations and in compliance with WTO rules, and it held that the application met the requirements for filing an anti-dumping investigation, the official said.

"We will conduct the investigation according to relevant Chinese laws and regulations, as well as WTO rules, in an open and transparent way and safeguard the rights of all stakeholders in the process," Shu Jueting, a spokesperson for the MOFCOM, said on January 12.

China's anti-dumping investigations accord with China's legal framework and the WTO guidelines, and a decision will be based on factual evidence. However, EU investigations into Chinese EVs have not followed the WTO rules and they smack of trade protectionism, Chinese analysts said.

According to the WTO's anti-subsidy regulations, the EU is required to first demonstrate that Chinese EVs have received subsidies and that this has affected local manufacturers. However, the bloc has not proved any receipt of subsidies nor shown that local EU production of EVs has been affected by imports from China, Sun Yanhong, a senior research fellow at the Institute of European Studies under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times.

Some critics in the EU claim that China-made EVs sold in the EU market have a clear price advantage over those made by local manufacturers, but they never mention that Chinese cars sold in the EU are about twice as expensive as those sold in China, industry insiders pointed out.

They added that components such as motors, controllers and chargers used in China-made EVs come from European companies, including but not limited to Bosch, Siemens and Alstom. Chinese EVs producers are also working with European automakers to promote technological innovations.

For example, Bosch on Monday won the approval to start construction of the second phase of a production base for new-energy vehicle components and a self-driving research and development (R&D) center in Suzhou, East China's Jiangsu Province, the Suzhou Industrial Park announced on its WeChat account on Tuesday.

Total investment for Bosch's Suzhou production and R&D base will exceed $1 billion. Phase one of the project is expected to begin trial production in September, and formal mass production will be achieved in early 2025.

Analysts said that opening-up has promoted the development of China's EV industry. China has maintained an open and welcoming attitude toward EV companies from around the world, including Volkswagen and Tesla.

China's central government has unveiled this year's GDP growth target, at about 5 percent, on par with last year's rate. The target has made market investors rejoice, giving them higher confidence in an across-the-board revival of China-related equities and other assets in the coming months. As expected, the country's A-share market has held on to strong gains in the past two weeks of robust trading.

But not all are elated with China's growth target. A good number of Western politicians and media pundits have claimed it is "too aggressive and lofty," a goal that may not be pulled off. Some of them are annoyed and disgruntled with China's resolve, and have started to curse the Chinese economy, predicting it will "capsize" and never close the current gap with the GDP of the US in nominal terms.

It's laughable and mean to diminish and denigrate others' economies. Last year, amid the Western media chorus of "China's economic collapse," the country's GDP expanded by 5.2 percent over a year earlier, with yearly added output value of more than 6 trillion yuan ($835 billion).

Compared with 2023, when China had just bid goodbye to the protracted and distressing three-year pandemic, there are better and riper conditions now to pursue a growth rate of about 5 percent in 2024. The lingering impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has been largely eliminated, and nearly all the fundamentals of the economy have been rehabilitated and shored up, which paves the way for a possible takeoff this year.

The central government is ready to fuel the economy in 2024 with a volley of growth-reinforcing stimulus policies, to be whipped up by a new mandate - brewing new quality productive forces to help build a stronger and greater country.

China is currently leading in the global endeavor in green and renewable energy, in electric vehicle and high-end battery development, in high-speed mobile telecom networks and railway roll-outs, in autonomous driving, deep space, modern robotics, artificial intelligence, quantum computing and other advanced sectors of information technology research and development. Naturally and consequentially, the country will be a front-runner in finding and creating new quality productive forces.

During a press conference held at the sidelines of the second session of the 14th National People's Congress recently, China's leading economic planners and policymakers discussed the magnitude of macro stimulus and overall policy direction for this year and beyond.

Collectively, officials displayed elevated confidence before global audiences that they are upbeat about realizing this year's growth targets, despite facing worldwide volatility including wars, conflicts, rising economic protectionism and technology isolation.

As to whether the GDP growth target of 5 percent is attainable, Zheng Shanjie, head of the National Development and Reform Commission, said it was set following the central government's comprehensive assessment, "taking into account current and long-term needs and possibilities" and the target is "a positive goal reachable with a jump," meaning through earnest hard work.

Lan Fo'an, the finance minister, and Pan Gongsheng, the governor of the People's Bank of China, the central bank, pledged more fiscal and monetary policy support to boost the economic revival. Commerce Minister Wang Wentao announced plans for a large-scale national trade-in event this year, aiming at replacing outdated manufacturing equipment, worn-out cars and home appliances to propel domestic consumption.

Wu Qing, head of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, vowed to significantly tighten capital market oversight to prevent irrational volatility.

Fiscally, China plans to issue an additional 3.9 trillion yuan in local government bonds in 2024 to support local government coffers, providing more financial resources for infrastructure construction and rural revitalization, including an initiative to dole out more welfare benefits to elderly rural residents.

The central government will issue ultra-long special treasury bonds starting this year and over each of the next several years to ramp up fiscal stimulus to support overall economic growth.

Monetarily, the central bank said it still has sufficient policy room in its toolbox. In contrast to other major economies, China isn't burdened by high inflation, which enables the central bank to maintain a lower interest rate policy and provide ample market liquidity. This will benefit Chinese business expansion, aid consumer spending and ratchet up overall economic activity in 2024.

Last month, the central bank reduced the benchmark five-year interest rate by 25 basis points. This move aims to ease the long-term burden on enterprises and is expected to significantly benefit the real estate sector, as the mortgage rates were lowered accordingly.

The economy has gotten off to a very strong start, as evidenced by steadily rising foreign trade. In the first two months, China's merchandise exports rose 10.3 percent year-on-year.

Meanwhile, the number of tourists who ventured out during the eight-day Chinese Lunar New Year holidays marked a staggering increase of 19 percent compared with the pre-pandemic number in 2019.

The upbeat figures show China's economic activity is rapidly gaining pace. With the government's enhanced fiscal and monetary stimulus, backed up by an improving stock market performance, the momentum for growth will accumulate and consistently build.

Provided China continues to focus on tech innovation, foster new quality productive forces and stick to the opening-up policy, typically helping its Belt and Road Initiative partners and the Global South to develop and prosper, the central government's development blueprint for 2035 - when GDP is to double from the 2020 level - isn't out of reach at all.

China's A-share market has seen a sustained rebound recently, with multiple overseas financial institutions voicing intentions to boost their holdings. Analysts suggest that the influx of foreign capital serves as a barometer, and they believe that concerted measures will keep driving economic growth and market recovery in 2024.

"Global funds are returning to China stocks," Bloomberg reported on Tuesday, citing Morgan Stanley analysts.

Outflows from Chinese equities slowed into the end of February and regional active managers started adding growth and technology stocks, analysts said.

China's stock market is now highly attractive from a valuation standpoint, making A-shares particularly appealing, Zhu Liang, investment director of AllianceBernstein Fund Management Co, said in a note introducing the company's investment outlook in 2024.

China's listed companies are expected to maintain profit growth in 2024. It is estimated that the earnings per share of A-shares will increase about 17 percent this year. If valuation multiples remain unchanged, the profit growth suggests that the Chinese stock market should perform quite well, Zhu said.

Kinger Lau, chief China equity strategist at Goldman Sachs, and his team maintain a cautiously optimistic outlook on the Chinese stock market, anticipating that economic improvements will drive a rebound in corporate profits. Given that A-share valuations are currently at historic lows, the team maintains its "overweight" stance on A-shares, according to the company's 2024 investment outlook released via its official WeChat account in December 2023.

Goldman Sachs expects 10 percent profit growth for shares in the MSCI China Index and 11 percent profit growth for companies in the onshore CSI 300 Index in 2024.

Capital from the Middle East has continued to bet on Chinese assets, with investments spanning multiple popular sectors including new-energy vehicles, petrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, steel and more.

China-based E Fund Management and leading Saudi Arabian asset manager Riyad Capital have recently signed an agreement to exchange expertise and cooperate in local investment areas.

Analysts had previously expected that capital from the Middle East would increase its investment in the Chinese capital market, which could potentially bring an annual inflow of funds of about 20 billion yuan ($2.78 billion) to A-shares in the Chinese mainland and H-shares in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, according to financial publication stcn.com.

After hitting a low point of 2,635 on February 5, the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index rebounded and gained for eight straight days. It has remained above 3,000 points in recent trading sessions.

In February, A-shares reversed the trend of continuous net outflows of foreign capital seen in the previous six months. Northbound capital - overseas money flowing into China's A-share market via the Hong Kong stock exchange - increased holdings in the A-share market by a substantial 60.74 billion yuan, reaching a 13-month high.

The net buying volume of northbound capital in A-shares for the month already surpassed the total for the entire year of 2023, financial data provider Wind showed.

"The downturn in the A-share market last year deviated from China's normal economic fundamentals and the previous continuous net outflow of northbound capital was abnormal," Hu Qimu, a deputy secretary-general of the digital-real economies integration Forum 50, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

Some foreign funds that engaged in malicious short-selling underestimated not only China's resolve to stabilize its capital market but also the resilience of its economy, Hu noted.

The underlying stability of the capital market should be enhanced, according to the Government Work Report submitted to the second session of the 14th National People's Congress on Tuesday.

This sets a clear direction for the reform and development of the capital market this year, addressing the concerns of all market participants, including investors, about the current state of the capital market, experts said.

Moreover, the People's Bank of China (PBC), the country's central bank, will continue to strengthen the connectivity between domestic and foreign financial markets, attracting more overseas investors to the country's markets, PBC Governor Pan Gongsheng said at a press conference on Wednesday.

As of the end of January, foreign investors had been net purchasers of Chinese bonds for 12 consecutive months, with cumulative net purchases of 1.8 trillion yuan, Pan said.

Looking at the global landscape, the US Federal Reserve is expected to start a rate-cutting cycle by the second half of this year, which is likely to provide support for the yuan's performance this year. It is estimated that foreign capital inflows into A-shares for 2024 could range from 100 billion to 200 billion yuan, Yang Delong, chief economist at Shenzhen-based First Seafront Fund Management Co, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

TikTok is in the spotlight once again, as German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was quoted by media outlets as saying that he wants the government to open an account on the Chinese video-sharing app. It is hoped that Western economies can take this as a chance to promote positive interactions with TikTok and foster a fair, transparent and predictable environment for Chinese companies.

The West's suppression of TikTok is a sheer act of discrimination in the guise of so-called national security. A spokesperson for the German government said on Friday that Berlin still needed to check the situation thoroughly before launching an account, and members of the federal press office could not access the app on their government phones, Reuters reported.

This situation is unlikely to change immediately, but efforts should be made to tackle discrimination. At the very least, Germany should lift its ban on TikTok and allow government employees to have the app on their work phones.

A ban on TikTok won't solve so-called data privacy problems. On the contrary, it will bring new problems and challenges. 

First, if TikTok, the world's most popular video-sharing app, is blocked from Western countries, content creators will suffer significant losses. With TikTok, some influencers are earning substantial amounts of money, many of whom are young people. The internet provides not only a way to cheaply obtain entertainment, but also offers economic opportunities for young people who are more willing to accept new ideas and changes.

Second, protectionist sentiment won't help the internet economy, and will instead impede its growth. A ban on TikTok will restrain market competition, and slow down the development of the internet economy. 

Reuters said in its report that parties such as the Alternative for Germany are already leveraging the TikTok platform to connect with younger voters. However, whether it's a political party in Germany or in other Western countries, if it wants to win young voters, it is not enough to just open a TikTok account. It should give a boost to the internet economy, encourage fair competition, and stop unreasonable suppression of advanced enterprises, including TikTok.

Germany should adopt a strategy to encourage TikTok to invest. Germany's economy has had a rough year: its GDP shrank by 0.3 percent in 2023. Germany, at the forefront of industrial innovation for decades, is struggling to adapt to the digital age. 

The German economy needs to find new growth drivers. The development of new productive forces can cultivate new economic growth drivers and competitive advantages, and provide new impetus for its economy.

In countries like China, the commercialization of internet technologies is pushed by big enterprises such as TikTok's owner ByteDance. Their commercial success is an example of how the commercialization of internet technologies is speeding up. 

Industry 4.0 represents the fourth industrial revolution, driven by the fusion of digital technologies with traditional manufacturing processes. Germany should strengthen cooperation with China in the field of Industry 4.0, which will help leverage Germany's industrial advantages.

If Germany falls into Washington's narrative trap of "national security" and continues to suppress TikTok and other Chinese enterprises, it will miss important cooperation opportunities with China's internet industry.

It will be a test of Germany's wisdom to see if it can capitalize on business opportunities arising from bilateral cooperation with Chinese internet companies and make the cooperation a positive factor for its economic restructuring.

From this perspective, whether the German government will open a TikTok account is not the most important thing. For the German economy, the most important thing is that Germany should lift its ban on TikTok, create and maintain a fair, competitive business environment for Chinese internet enterprises, and encourage both sides to strengthen cooperation in the fields of the internet and the digital economy.

Recruiters have explained job responsibilities for thousands of applicants at recruitment fairs, with job seekers rushing to these fairs. Such scenes were seen nationwide as the spring recruitment season started.

The demand for talent, especially in high-tech fields, is sharply increasing, the Global Times has learned. Analysts said that with the development of high-tech industries boosted by innovation-driven new productive forces, the demand for talent will continue to increase and more new jobs will be created.

Boosted by the rising popularity of Sora, a text-to-video model by OpenAI, the number of new jobs targeting artificial intelligence generated content (AIGC) on domestic recruitment site Liepin increased by 612.5 percent in the first week after the Spring Festival holidays starting February 19, on a yearly basis.

The average annual salary has reached 443,700 yuan ($61,667). Algorithm engineers and product managers are the top two roles in demand, with algorithm engineers accounting for 18.95 percent of the open positions and product managers accounting for 12.63 percent, according to a report released by Liepin on Monday.

Emerging fields such as new energy, new manufacturing and biomedicine accounted for five of the top 10 open roles with the highest salaries in the first week after the Spring Festival holidays, according to a report Zhilian Zhaopin, a Chinese job-hunting platform, sent to the Global Times.

The number of openings posted by the new-energy, electrical and power industries increased by 14.5 percent year-on-year, read the report.

Employment conditions in 2024 are expected to be more favorable compared with last year, Li Chang'an, a professor at the Academy of China Open Economy Studies at the University of International Business and Economics, told the Global Times on Thursday.

"The fundamentals for economic development this year remain relatively solid. Employment in 2023 improved from quarter to quarter," said Li.

By the end of 2023, the total number of employed people in China was 740.41 million, with 470.32 million in urban areas, accounting for 63.5 percent of the total, according to figures released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Thursday.

The increase in newly employed people in urban areas stood at 12.44 million for the full year, 380,000 more than in 2022, said the bureau.

Although the number of new jobs continued to increase, analysts warned that the pressure on total employment and structural problems remains.

The number of college graduates in 2024 is expected to reach 11.79 million, an increase of 210,000, reaching a new high, according to the Ministry of Education.

The employment situation of college graduates is grim, but analysts said that China's high-quality development means a huge demand for well-educated workers.

The growing digital economy and the innovation-led new productive forces have created lots of new jobs, Pan Helin, a professor at Zhejiang University's International Business School, told the Global Times on Thursday.

New productive forces mean that advanced productivity has been freed from traditional economic growth models.

"The emergence of new productive forces is often accompanied by new industries, new business forms and new models. These new areas of the economy require a lot of talent, thus creating new jobs. The development of emerging industries such as the internet, big data and artificial intelligence has created new jobs," said Pan.

For example, by 2025, the total talent gap for energy-saving sectors and the new-energy vehicle industry is expected to reach 1.03 million, according to a Zhilian Zhaopin report published in January.

Analysts said that the focus should be on how to match the talent demand of enterprises with education at the university level.

"Certain industries and fields are facing challenges in hiring, particularly for skilled technicians, as talent demand continues to grow with technological advancements," said Li.

China's "demographic dividend" has been transforming into a "talent dividend," Sheng Laiyun, a deputy commissioner of the NBS, said on Thursday.

"The average length of education for China's working-age population has increased to 11.05 years, and the number of experts, scientific and technological research personnel, and research and development personnel all rank first in the world," said Sheng.

China's Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) has vowed to strengthen international connectivity and global reach of its major airports, aiming to build world-class aviation enterprises and air hubs by 2050. 

CAAC will boost intercontinental connectivity and global influence of the airports in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, upgrading them into world-class aviation hubs, Han Jun, deputy administrator of CAAC, said on Wednesday. 

It is part of the administration's latest efforts to enhance transit efficiency, and streamline entry and exit process.

The CAAC will focus on elevating the capacities of major hubs in China, building international and regional hub airports in cities across China, and advancing development of air cargo hubs such as the Ezhou Huahu Airport in Ezhou, central China's Hubei Province.

The administration also plans to optimize resource allocation for airlines. CAAC also stressed the importance of improving operation efficiency of Chinese airports, airlines, and air traffic control, and aim to boost the overall transport capacity of aviation hubs with integrated transportation system.

Efforts will also be made to create a more convenient policy environment, by optimizing visa and immigration policies, as well as easing customs clearance.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry on Tuesday said that arbitrarily putting up barriers can't stop China's innovation, and it urged the US to support companies from all countries to promote technological progress through fair competition.

The remarks came after US chipmaker Nvidia identified Huawei as a top competitor in areas including artificial intelligence (AI) chips, and said that if the US tightens export controls on chips, its competitive position could be further affected in the long term.

"Small yard and high fence" will not stop China's innovation-driven development, nor will it do any good to US companies or the entire semiconductor industry," Mao Ning, Foreign Ministry spokesperson, told a press conference on Tuesday.

Mao noted that open cooperation is the core driving force for the growth of the semiconductor industry. China is one of the major semiconductor markets in the world. To fragment the market, destabilize global industrial and supply chains, and stymie efficiency and innovation serves no one's interests.

The US needs to follow the principles of market economy and fair competition, and support companies around the world in advancing science and technology through healthy competition, Mao said.

Nvidia identified Huawei as a top competitor in supplying chips designed for AI, such as graphics processing units, central processing units and networking chips, for the first time in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission last Wednesday, Reuters reported.

Industry observers said the move underscored the rapid ascent of Chinese companies' tech prowess, fueled by their stepped-up research and development (R&D) investment and the explosive demand in the domestic market.

"It shows that China has not been hindered by the US-launched tech war, but has instead made progress by developing its own chip technology and ecosystem," Xiang Ligang, director-general of the Beijing-based Information Consumption Alliance, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

China's AI sector is undergoing a development boom, with the scale of the core industry at 500 billion yuan ($69 billion) and the number of AI enterprises exceeding 4,300, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology last year.

While Chinese companies are reducing their reliance on US technology due to escalating chip bans, the curbs have had a negative impact on the business of US companies.

Nvidia is offering customers samples of its two new AI chips aimed at the China market, its CEO Jensen Huang said, in a bid to defend its market dominance amid the US export curbs, Reuters reported last week.

The offering shows Nvidia's urgent efforts to retain the Chinese market, yet the market reaction to the downgraded chips in China has not been very positive, as potential buyers are concerned that there may be further restrictions after purchase, Xiang said.

According to its results released last Wednesday, Nvidia recorded sales of $1.9 billion in the China market in the fiscal fourth quarter, which ended on January 28, Reuters reported.

That amounted to about 9 percent of total sales, down from 22 percent in the previous quarter when it reported $4 billion in sales in the region.

"This last quarter, our business significantly declined as we…stopped shipping in the marketplace (for China)," Huang said during the earnings call.

China will play an important role in the key sectors such as logistics in helping Brazil to increase its agricultural productivity and competitiveness, Henry Osvald, president of the Brazilian Association for Industry, Commerce and Innovation in China (BraCham), told the Global Times, extending his expectations for deepening cooperation between the world's two agricultural powers.

The remarks were made as Chinese agricultural companies such as Yuan Longping High-Tech Agriculture Co and Syngenta have beefed up collaboration with their Brazilian counterparts with measures such as mergers and acquisitions. The efforts were made for better securing and diversifying food supplies, particularly soybean.

As part of recent efforts to deepen cooperation, Chinese companies such as Syngenta and Yuan Longping High-Tech Agriculture Co have made their moves this year in lining up to acquire stakes in Brazilian seed companies, according to jiemian.com .

The recent moves by the Chinese companies once again confirm that "China trusts Brazilian agricultural products to feed its population and expanding investment in Brazil makes a lot more sense," Osvald said.

Among China's major sources of agricultural imports, Brazil maintained its first rank in 2023 while further expanding the gap with the second placed US, according to a report released by China's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.

Data show that Brazil exported $58.618 billion of agricultural products to China in 2023, accounting for 24.85 percent of China's overall agricultural imports, compared with 13.96 percent of the US.

The strong momentum of China-Brazil agricultural trade is mainly due to factors such as the increase in Brazilian soybean exports to China, the official opening of the Brazilian corn export corridor to China last year, and China's first bulk ship import of corn from Brazil, Zhang Weiqi, director of the Brazil Research Center under the Shanghai International Studies University, told the Global Times.

The lingering China-US trade frictions were also a reason that prompts Chinese traders to shift from US suppliers to other sources, according to Zhang.

China and Brazil share high complementarities and potential in agricultural cooperation.

On the one hand, Brazil is one of the countries with the most advanced technologies in soil and grain. By investing in seed companies, China will not only secure the supply of grains, but also acquire some technology which can be applied locally, Osvald said.

On the other hand China can also share equipment and technology with Brazil to boost production and help the country to be more competitive, the president said.

Brazil has one of the largest agricultural lands in the world and still a lot to be expanded. We say that Brazil is the agricultural country and we are quite confident that will keep feeding the world, Osvald said.

"A lot is being done to increase productivity and competitiveness and China will also play an important role especially on the logistics side, as there are already some large Chinese players investing on railway projects in Brazil to reduce transportation costs and lead-time of agricultural products," Osvald said.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Brazil.

It is expected that both nations will seize this opportunity to elevate bilateral cooperation, setting an example for collaboration between China and Latin American countries, as well as promoting South-South cooperation, Zhang said.

Two C919 and three ARJ 21 jets, which were developed by Commercial Aircraft Corp of China (COMAC), debuted at the Singapore Airshow on Tuesday, using various formats and performances, COMAC said in a statement sent to the Global Times. 

On the sidelines of the Singapore Airshow, China's Tibet Airlines and COMAC signed a contract for 40 high-altitude C919 planes and 10 ARJ 21 orders. Henan Civil Aviation Development & Investment Group ordered six ARJ 21 planes including fire-fighting aircraft, medical use aircraft and emergency rescue aircraft, COMAC said in a separate statement sent to the Global Times.

International debut of China's home-developed planes, together with recent achievements in the high-end manufacturing sector, underscores the country's continuous efforts and determination in bolstering its high-tech development, which will significantly propel China's economic progress in 2024, observers said. 

The large-scale participation showcased China's strong confidence in its commercial aircraft. China is able to manufacture and start the market operation of domestic commercial aircraft, Wang Yanan, chief editor of Beijing-based Aerospace Knowledge magazine, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

The achievement is also a major progress in the international sense, since only a few countries can manufacture commercial aircraft, Wang said. 

Wang noted that the Singapore Airshow is an opportunity to demonstrate China's manufacturing strength in high-tech products, while China's participation also showcased the country's strong willingness to explore the international market.
The Singapore Airshow, which kicked off on Tuesday and lasts until Sunday, is the largest aviation event in Asia. 

The C919 large passenger jet, which can seat up to 192 passengers and fly up to 5,555 kilometers, is equipped with advanced aerodynamic design, propulsion systems and materials, leading to lower carbon emissions and higher fuel efficiency. 

A total of four C919 jets have been delivered and safely carried more than 110,000 passengers since the plane made its maiden commercial flight on May 28, 2023. Mass production and the development of the series are both going smoothly, per the COMAC statement.

This year will be a key period to speed up mass production and deliveries of the C919, and for COMAC to integrate the industry, supply and innovation chains for the airliner while expanding in the overseas market, Qi Qi, an independent market watcher, told the Global Times.

The ARJ21 has a passenger capacity of up to 97 and a maximum flight span of 3,700 kilometers. It has good takeoff and landing performances with crosswind resistance ability at high elevations and in high temperatures. 

Since the ARJ 21 was put into commercial operation in June 2016, a total of 127 jets have been delivered, and they have safely carried more than 11 million passengers. Among them, two planes are operated by Indonesia's TransNusa Airlines on four routes based in Jakarta to five cities, and they have transported more than 100,000 passengers, according to COMAC. 

In December 2023, the C919 and the ARJ21 made their first appearance in the Hong Kong Administrative Region, marking the first time for the C919 to leave the Chinese mainland.

China has achieved fruitful results in the high-end manufacturing sector amid its rapid development and upgrading, and the continuing momentum will help the nation retain its leading position in the global competition, Pan Helin, a professor at Zhejiang University's International Business School, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

The development of the high-end manufacturing sector will play a vital role for advancing China's economy this year, as it is a major representation of the new productive forces, Pan said. He added that the sector's development will also drive the development of related industry chains and create industrial agglomeration effects. 

China's first domestically produced large cruise ship, Adora Magic City, carried around 8,000 passengers in two separate voyages during the just-passed Spring Festival holidays, which is another vivid example of the country's manufacturing prowess. 

China has demonstrated its "strong momentum and broad prospects" in the development of new productive forces, the backbone of which are strategic emerging industries and industries of the future, Cai Wei, chief strategy officer of KPMG China Advisory, told the Xinhua News Agency in a recent interview. 

The share of strategic emerging industries, such as new energy, high-end equipment and biotechnology, in China's GDP surpassed 13 percent in 2022 from 7.6 percent in 2014, according to Cai. China plans to raise the level to 17 percent by 2025, per the Xinhua report.

China is striving to complete negotiations on version 3.0 of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area (FTA) in 2024 amid a "rich agenda" for FTA negotiations in a bid to further advance high-standard opening-up, Chinese vice minister of commerce Wang Shouwen told a press conference on Friday. 

China's active engagement in FTA talks reflects China's commitment to deepening economic cooperation and integration and will have a positive impact on both China and the world economy by promoting trade, investment, and regional economic integration, experts said.

The talks on version 3.0 of the China-ASEAN FTA are scheduled to take place in Hangzhou, East China's Zhejiang Province, next week, Wang said.

Additionally, China will also complete FTA negotiations with Honduras, complete FTA upgrade negotiations with Peru and continue to promote the joining of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement (DEPA) this year, Wang said.

In November 2022, China and ASEAN jointly announced the official launch of the negotiations. The two sides agreed that the negotiations will cover fields including trade in goods, investment, and digital and green economy, so as to build a more inclusive, modern, comprehensive, and mutually beneficial China-ASEAN FTA.

"The upgrade of the China-ASEAN FTA caters to the mutual development needs of both China and ASEAN, and will contribute to further enhancing the bilateral trade volume," Zhou Shixin, a research fellow at Shanghai Institutes for International Studies, told the Global Times on Friday.

Bilateral trade between China and ASEAN reached 6.41 trillion yuan ($900 billion) in 2023, with ASEAN maintaining its position as China's largest trading partner for the fourth consecutive year. China has continued to be ASEAN's largest trading partner for multiple years.

Additionally, the upgrade of the China-ASEAN FTA is expected to drive the upgrades of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and lay a good foundation for China's joining of CPTPP and DEPA, Zhou said.

Wang believes China now has more mature conditionsfor joining the CPTPP, as it has been consistently making efforts to promote deep exchanges with CPTPP members and enhance pilot projects and experiments within its domestic free trade zones, aligning with high-level international standards. 

"We have full confidence and the capability of meeting the high standards set by the CPTPP," Wang said.

China will also continue to engage in free trade negotiations or upgrade negotiations with the Gulf Cooperation Council, New Zealand, South Korea, and Switzerland to further implement the high-standard free trade zone network, Wang added.

High-standard economic and trade rules, as well as new content such as the lifting of the zero tariff ratio for goods traded, the promotion of telecommunications and healthcare services opening-up, and the expansion of market access for digital products will be included in the new free trade negotiations, Wang said.

"The proactive moves demonstrate China's commitment to further opening its doors and injecting new vitality into the regional economy amid the slowdown in global economic recovery," Zhou said.

2024 is indeed a pivotal year for the enhancement of free trade agreements. China's increasing domestic competitiveness, coupled with the opportunities of the digital and green era, as well as the "decoupling" and supply chain disruptions imposed by the US and the West, call for renewed efforts to upgrade free trade agreements, Wang Yiwei, director of the Institute of International Affairs at the Renmin University of China, told the Global Times.

"It will not only drive China's economic growth but also contribute to open and inclusive economic globalization," Wang Yiwei added.

2023 saw the RCEP come into full effect and was a fruitful year for China to expand free trade agreements with other partners. 

"In 2023, we signed four new free trade agreements. As of today, we have signed 22 free trade agreements with 29 countries and regions, and trade with those countries and regions accounted for approximately one-third of China's total foreign trade volume," Wang said.

Chinese enterprises enjoyed import duty reductions of 2.36 billion yuan under the RCEP last year. At the same time, import enterprises from RCEP partner countries benefited from preferential treatment worth 4.05 billion yuan when importing products from China, which is a clear and mutually beneficial outcome for both sides, Wang said.