september: RMB revisits 2008 rates

Cadre promotion and removal are front and centre in a newly issued CCP Central Committee document. ‘Personal’ morality and following central policy are first and foremost. The new standards stress cadre ‘loyalty’ to the Party centre and that factionalism is not to be tolerated. The standards emphasise enacting policy in line with the reality on ground. Cadres should not rigidly impose central policies. The point is to solve intractable problems of local resistance to policies arbitrarily promoted by officials.

Having launched a heftier stimulus in August, September saw moves to fill in the gaps. Retail banks cut their deposit rates to align more closely with the central bank’s interest rate cuts earlier in the year. It also moved to slow the RMB’s depreciation against the US dollar by decreasing the foreign exchange deposit reserve ratio, and raising the forex risk reserve ratio.

Nonetheless, the RMB/USD exchange rate breached the critical threshold of 7 in mid-September, falling to the lowest rate for the RMB since 2008. The bank prefers to prevent large swings in either direction—a cheaper currency would boost exports—but make importing the raw materials needed more expensive. Demand for RMB settlement of foreign exchange might increase given a large accumulation of foreign exchange deposits at banks generated through a strong trade surplus.

COVID fatigue is growing, along with public discontent due to tightening border control and sporadic lockdowns. Even when no new cases are detected, nationwide PCR testing is to remain mandatory, hinted the National Health Commission in early September.

The National Medical Products Administration is taking steps to tighten supervision of online drug sales. It aims to build up the capacity of the ‘healthcare + internet’ industry and eliminate safety and quality risks as consumers switch to buying medicine online, driven by the pandemic.

A Law Against Telecom and Online Fraud has passed against a backdrop of crackdowns on online fraud. Phone cards, bank cards and internet accounts are the focus of risk prevention and monitoring. Yet the line between the protection it affords personal safety and property and infringements of privacy and other rights, remains thin.

In force as of 1 January 2023, the amended Agriculture Product Quality and Safety Law incorporates ‘producer responsibility’, a global norm, but gaining traction in the PRC only in recent years. Large producers, including farmer cooperatives and ag companies, must certify that their products are free from banned additives and within the safe range for residues. Production side data will support nationwide traceability, which is still in its infancy.

The record-breaking heatwave has been easing since the end August, in time for yet another 'bumper' autumn harvest, obliging MARA to explain to the public how this could be possible, given the COVID disruptions and extreme weather.

Following the end of this record heatwave, authorities are moving to shore up the electrical power system. The focus is on improving power allocation capacity in Sichuan while promoting virtual power plants or scaling up nuclear power capacity nationally.

After kickstarting low-carbon development in ICT and electricity equipment industries, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will soon issue carbon peaking plans for raw materials industries. The technology, potentially helping reach pre-existing targets, has seen a big push, with the largest carbon capture, utilisation and storage project using homemade tech starting operation.

A new ‘disciplinary code for scientific research dishonesty,’ issued on 14 Sep 2022, prescribes penalties, ranging from warnings, and public naming-and-shaming to funding freezes and cancellation or withholding of titles and degrees, for research misconduct. A case database will stigmatise violators for ‘serious research dishonesty’. This is the first time rules have been issued on how the database will be used to penalise research fraud.

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