Foreign direct investment (FDI) in China rose 0.5% year-on-year to CNY139.4 billion in the first two months of the year. FDI from Singapore, South Korea and the United States jumped 62.9%, 171.9% and 56.8% respectively, the Ministry of Commerce said. The number of newly-established foreign companies reached 8,848, up 129.2% on a year-on-year basis. Capital inflow from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and economies related to the Belt and Road Initiative into the Chinese mainland also surged 76.9% and 75.7% respectively from the same period last year. “The sharp contrast between the growth rates in the number of new foreign companies and FDI is caused by the country’s ongoing industry upgrading and new policies to attract foreign business to invest in the country’s high-tech and service-related sectors,” said Zhou Mi, Researcher at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation. He said the figures show that the amount of FDI in single projects decreased.

The general manufacturing sector will be completely opened up to foreign investment, and access to sectors such as telecommunications, medical services, education, elderly care and new-energy vehicles (NEVs) will be expanded this year. China will also phase in an opening-up of bank card clearing and other markets; lift restrictions on the scope of operations of foreign-invested insurance companies, and ease or lift restrictions on the share of foreign-owned equity in companies in sectors including banking, securities, fund management and futures. Foreign capital inflow in the high-tech manufacturing sector rose 27.9% year-on-year, accounting for almost a fifth of the total FDI.

The Supreme People’s Court (SPC) is considering setting up a high court specializing in handling intellectual property (IPR) disputes as the country takes bigger steps to protect IP rights. The Supreme People’s Court is also studying how to hear IP lawsuits more efficiently and will make public detailed procedures soon, Song Xiaoming, Chief Judge of the SPC’s IP Tribunal told China Daily. China currently has three IP courts, all at intermediate level, in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangdong.

While delivering a work report to the National People’s Congress (NPC) SPC President Zhou Qiang said a plan to improve procedures on handling IP lawsuits is in the pipeline and addresses the public’s biggest complaint – the low cost of IP infringement and the high cost of tackling it. From 2013 to 2017, courts across the country concluded 683,000 IP disputes, 405,000 more than the previous five years. More than 120,000 people were charged with IP infringement between 2013 and 2017, 2.1 times as many as from 2008 to 2012, according to a report by the Supreme People’s Procuratorate. Lawmakers and political advisers welcomed the judiciary’s determination to strengthen protection of intellectual property rights, and called for even stronger penalties.

In addition, more attention should be paid to resolving IP disputes for companies doing business overseas, said Huang Jianping, an NPC Deputy and a businessman from Guangdong province. “It’s urgent to accelerate domestic enterprises’ IP registration and approval overseas by making bilateral or multilateral IP cooperation with countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative,” he said.

China’s economy showed steady growth in the first two months of the year, as industrial output and consumption grew at a faster pace, while growth in services and investment slowed slightly but remained stable. Industrial output expanded 7.2% year-on-year over the January-February period, 1 percentage point faster than the pace of December, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said. The high-tech sector showed a 11.9% year-on-year growth, 4.7 percentage points faster than the growth of industrial output, and consumer goods manufacturing also showed a rapid increase. Economists of the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group said in a note that improving performance in the state-owned enterprise sector helped to lift industrial production growth.

During January and February, fixed-asset investment grew 7.9% year-on-year, up 0.7 percentage points from the level of the whole year 2017 while falling by 1 percentage point from the same period of last year. Infrastructure investment, which accounts for over 20% of the total fixed-asset investment, rose 16.1% year-on-year for the two months, slowing down slightly but remaining a steady growing trend. Investment in property development rose 9.9% from a year earlier, up 2.9 percentage points from 2017 as a whole.

Mao Shengyong, NBS Spokesman, said the property market – including the overall housing price – is relatively stable, and real estate investment maintained a reasonable growth after a period of adjustment and control.One of the main contributors to retail sales growth was auto sales. While the total volume of sales only saw modest climb, the average sales price jumped, indicating that the demand for cars is more quality-oriented. Output of new-energy vehicles (NEVs) surged 178.1% year-on-year during the period, while industrial robots production jumped 25.1%. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 2.2% in the two months from a year ago, with the margin of increase up 0.5 percentage points from a year earlier. Foreign trade in January and February rose 16.7% year-on-year to CNY4.52 trillion. Imports increased 15.2% and exports jumped 18%. Mao said the data indicate a steady and better-than-expected economic growth in general, and the Bureau is confident in achieving the goal of a 6.5% annual growth in 2018 and creating more jobs, the Shanghai Daily reports.

China’s power generation saw faster growth in the first two months, with electricity from clean energy sources expanding at a rapid pace. In January and February, power production rose 11%, 4.7 percentage points faster than the same period in 2017. The growth was the highest since August 2013. Electricity from thermal power plants, which accounts for 77% of all power generation, jumped 9.8%, 2.8 percentage points higher than the same period of last year. Electricity from hydropower plants climbed 5.9%, compared with a 4.7% decrease registered for the first two months of last year. Nuclear, wind and solar power production surged 17.9%, 34.7% and 36% respectively. Coal output increased 5.7% to 520 million tons, compared with the 1.7% year-on-year decline in the first two months of last year.

China, already the world’s biggest smartphone and internet market, appears set to become a major consumer of a range of gadgets enabled with artificial intelligence (AI), including voice-activated smart speakers and robots for the home, according the Global Consumer Insights survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). It found Brazilian and Chinese consumers were twice as likely to plan buying an AI device – 59% and 52%, respectively – as their American, British or French peers, with interest at 25%, 24% and 25%, respectively.

The annual survey, which assesses the shopping behavior, habits and expectations of more than 22,000 consumers in 27 countries, found that 21% of respondents in China already owned AI-enabled devices, such as smart speakers. Across all markets surveyed, early adopters of AI devices tend to be men, aged 18-34, according to PwC. “AI is moving very rapidly into the consumer and retail sectors,” John Maxwell, the global consumer markets leader at PwC, said. “Within two to three years, AI could revolutionize how companies profile, segment and serve customers.” As Chinese consumers have taken to e-commerce in increasing numbers each year, they are also keen to adopt the latest innovations for the home.

The Chinese government has made AI a top priority, pledging to build a USD150 billion industry by 2030. Beijing has also recruited the country’s biggest technology companies – including Baidu, Alibaba Group Holding and Tencent Holdings – to join a so-called national team to push the domestic AI industry forward, the South China Morning Post reports.

“None of the big-name Western smart speakers, such as Amazon’s Echo, Google Home and Apple’s HomePod, have officially entered China,” said Zhu Yuanzhi, Marketing Director at Rokid, a Hangzhou-based smart speaker start-up backed by investors including Temasek Holdings and Credit Suisse. Zhu said the main reason for that delay was that it was “difficult for their AI systems to master the Chinese language and interact with Chinese consumers”. More than 100 companies in China have become involved in the smart speaker market since last year, betting that these devices would be the next big thing after smartphones.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce voiced strong opposition to U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan to impose sweeping tariffs on imports from China. Thomas Donohue, President and CEO of the Chamber, which represents more than 3 million businesses, said the Chamber understands the Trump Administration’s concern over the impact of China’s industrial policies and trade practices. “But the U.S. Chamber would strongly disagree with a decision to impose sweeping tariffs,” Donohue said in a statement. Concerns about a trade war between the world’s two largest economies have grown recently. White House officials said that the Trump administration may in the coming week or two announce a USD60 billion punitive tariff, primarily targeting China’s technology and telecommunications products, for the country’s alleged intellectual property violations. The United States initiated a Section 301 investigation under the U.S. Trade Act of 1974 into China’s intellectual property policies and practices in August.

“Simply put, tariffs are damaging taxes on American consumers,” Donohue said. Tariffs of USD30 billion a year would wipe out over a third of the savings U.S. families received from doubling the standard deduction under recent tax reforms, and if the tariffs reach USD60 billion, it would be even more devastating, he said. Such tariffs could lead to a destructive trade war with serious consequences for U.S. economic growth and job creation, he added. “The livelihoods of America’s consumers, businesses, farmers and ranchers are at risk if the administration proceeds with this plan,” Donohue said, as reported by the China Daily.

Meanwhile U.S. President Donald Trump has asked China to reduce the trade deficit by USD100 billion, but China has rejected the demand, saying it did not want a trade war but that if Trump’s demands were unreasonable it would retaliate.