The Monetary Policy Committee of the People's Bank of China (PBC), China's central bank, has been reshuffled, with Wu Qing, new head of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, and another PBC official and two economists becoming new members.

Meanwhile, Yi Huiman, former CSRC head, and three others withdrew from the committee, according to the PBC website on Tuesday.

This is the first committee reshuffle following the amendment of some rules for the Monetary Policy Committee on January 18.

The amended rules added that the committee will adhere to the leadership of the Communist Party of China, improve the modern monetary policy framework and report important matters to the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, the cabinet.

The Monetary Policy Committee is a consultative body for the making of monetary policy by the central bank, whose responsibility is to advise on the formulation and adjustment of monetary policy and policy targets within a certain period, application of monetary policy instruments, major monetary policy measures and the coordination between monetary policy and other macroeconomic tools.

The committee plays its advisory role on the basis of comprehensive research on macroeconomic situation and the macroeconomic targets set by the central government, according to an introduction on the PBC website.

The Monetary Policy Committee performs its duty by convening the regular quarterly meeting. On December 27, the committee held its fourth-quarter meeting, stressing that China will step up the implementation of the new monetary policy that it put in place.

The adopted policies include maintaining reasonable and sufficient liquidity, guide reasonable credit growth and a balanced credit supply, and keep the scale of social financing and money supply in line with the set targets for economic growth and consumer price levels.

China is ramping up support for the development of new-energy vehicles (NEVs) and accelerating technology innovation to consolidate the industry's advantage, officials said at an industrial forum on Saturday.

The NEV industry in China is expected to see continued growth this year, building on its success in 2023, thanks to a competitive edge in the industry chain, experts said.

Zheng Shanjie, head of the National Development and Reform Commission, the country's top economic planner, called on key NEV manufacturers to focus on quality improvement, cost reduction, technological innovation and international cooperation to consolidate and expand their development advantages. Zheng made the comments at the 2024 China EV 100 Forum held in Beijing on Saturday.

The development of China's NEV industry demonstrates economic vitality, manufacturing improvement and China's commitment addressing climate change, Zheng said.

The forum, which marks its 10th anniversary this year, witnessed every milestone in the industry's development. 

In the past decade, China's production and sales of NEVs have increased from 75,000 to 9.5 million annually, adding a new bright spot to China's manufacturing industry, Deputy Minister of Industry and Information Technology Shan Zhongde said at the same forum.

In 2023, production of NEVs exceeded 9.58 million, up 35.8 percent year-on-year. Sales hit 9.49 million, up 37.9 percent, while exports soared 77.6 percent to more than 1.2 million, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM).

In the first two months of 2024, production reached 1.252 million, up 28.2 percent, and sales reached 1.207 million, up 29.4 percent, according to the CAAM.

Addressing the development of Chinese NEVs, Shan said it is necessary to uphold fair and transparent economic and trade rules on the international level, while strengthening the development of vehicle chips and basic software, and continuously improving the low-temperature adaptability, safety and charging convenience of NEVs on the domestic front.

The remarks by senior Chinese officials clarified the strong support for the development of NEVs at the national level, Wu Shuocheng, a veteran automobile analyst, told the Global Times on Sunday. 

In the domestic market, encouraging policies for trade-ins will continue to benefit buyers. Despite uncertainties in EU and US import policies, Chinese NEVs remain competitive in the overseas market, Wu said.

By establishing research and development facilities, sales centers and even complete vehicle factories in overseas markets, Chinese electric vehicles are effectively mitigating risks, Wu noted.

Shan said that the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) will enhance support for the high-quality, systematic and overseas expansion of China's NEV industry.

The ministry will tackle key technologies such as batteries, chips, operating systems and autonomous driving in order to enhance the resilience and competitiveness of China's NEV industry. It also pledged to improve the policy system to support leading enterprises to grow larger and stronger while phasing out outdated companies. 

The MIIT also vowed to expand NEV trade-ins, consumption of connected vehicles and trials of high-level autonomous driving in urban areas. The ministry is also committed to assisting NEV companies to expand overseas and it welcomes global auto companies to invest in China.

China's NEV advantages lie in its large-scale production capabilities, low costs, high quality, accumulated experience and leadership in smart technology, Zhang Xiang, visiting professor at the Engineering Department of Huanghe Science and Technology University, told the Global Times on Sunday. 

The next stage of development should be focused on core technological innovation such as intelligent connectivity and autonomous driving, as well as advances in automotive chips, operating systems and software, Zhang said.

The Government Work Report delivered at this year's national legislature session stressed the role of the automotive industry in stimulating consumption and enhancing the country's industrial competitive advantage. 

China will boost spending on intelligent connected NEVs, consolidate the advantage of connected vehicles and build more charging facilities, among the tasks for 2024, according to the Government Work Report.

Chen Binhua, a spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, on Wednesday criticized the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) authorities in Taiwan for jeopardizing the island's chip industry by catering to external forces. It comes amid growing concerns on the island about the future of the critical industry.

At a press briefing, Chen was asked to comment on a recent article about how the US' so-called CHIPS Act could hurt Taiwan's chip industry.

Chen pointed out that the article reflects serious concerns about the DPP authorities catering to external forces without any principle or bottom line, as well as concerns that Taiwan's key industries are being hollowed out, that core enterprises have been suppressed, and competitive advantages have been weakened.

"If Taiwan's economic autonomy in industrial development and its sway in the global production and supply chain are lost, how much 'family fortune' will it still have? In the end, it will only become an 'abandoned piece' instead of a 'chess piece,'" Chen said. "So the views of these industry experts are by no means alarmist."

The article was published jointly on February 26 by three leading figures in Taiwan's chip industry, cautioning that the US "CHIPS Act" could undermine Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) and strangle the island's semiconductor industry.

In the article, "How America's CHIPS Act hurts Taiwan," Burn Lin, former R&D vice president of TSMC, pointed out that "the US CHIPS Act is so poorly designed that it is likely to undercut Taiwan's TSMC, the world's leading semiconductor manufacturer, and leave the entire industry even more vulnerable than it already is."

The article, which was published by Project Syndicate, was also signed by many other experts from Taiwan and has sparked heated discussion in political and business circles in the island, with some pointing out that the DPP authorities are using semiconductor manufacturers like TSMC as a bargaining chip by forcing them to build factories abroad in order to attract external forces to "support Taiwan."

The so-called CHIPS and Science Act, which was approved by the administration of President Joe Biden on August 9, 2022, plans to hand out $52 billion in subsidies to lure semiconductor manufacturers to relocate to the US, with the aim of maintaining and advancing its scientific and technological edge.

Taiwan's semiconductor industry has become a key target for US officials and TSMC has been effectively coerced to step up building plants in the US.

Chinese officials have repeatedly slammed the protectionist US moves and crackdown measures in the chip industry, saying that US export controls and suppression of Chinese semiconductor companies are acts of economic bullying.

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.