Two of Beijing’s central city districts – Xicheng and Dongcheng – conducted universal nucleic acid testing for all residents, nearly 2 million people. Beijing has recorded more than a dozen cases since the first in the current outbreak emerged in suburban Daxing district on January 17. The 1.6 million residents of Daxing district were prohibited from leaving Beijing, as two Covid-19 cases linked to a new virus variant first found in Britain were identified. The Ronghui residential compound in Daxing’s Tiangongyuan subdistrict was declared a coronavirus hotspot. Over 24,000 residents of the compounds are required to quarantine in their homes. Meetings of 50 or more people in the district have been banned, while “weddings should be postponed and funerals simplified,” the Daxing government said. Beijing’s subway operator shut down the Tiangongyuan station located nearby the compound where the Daxing patients live.

Beijing is conducting nucleic acid testing among employees in key and “high-risk” industries, including cold chain, farm markets, restaurants, food delivery, public transport and daily life services, as part of ramped up efforts to find asymptomatic and imported cases. As of January 24, the city had conducted 17.46 million tests on its population with an average daily testing size of 415,680. Maximum daily testing capacity has reached 1.43 million. Beijing has a permanent resident population of 21 million.

People in Beijing’s rural areas have already been tested, covering 1.92 million residents in 396 villages. All results have come back negative. To better understand the outbreak’s source, the city has started human serum testing for all travelers who have arrived in Beijing from overseas since December 10. Shanghai designated the Salvo hotel in downtown Huangpu district as a medium-risk area for the virus’ spread – the second in the city – after six locally transmitted, confirmed cases were reported on January 21. Shijiazhuang, capital of Hebei province, detected 30 positive results for coronavirus from its third round of nucleic acid testing of its over 10.25 million residents, 25 of whom were already in centralized quarantine centers before testing positive.

As the number of Covid-19 cases is rising in rural areas, the National Health Commission (NHC) announced that  people intending to travel home to rural areas during the upcoming Spring Festival holiday must provide a negative  coronavirus test taken within seven days of starting their trip. People returning to the countryside should also isolate themselves at home for 14 days and take nucleic acid tests every seven days. About 1.7 billion passengers trips are expected during this year’s 40-day travel period around Spring Festival, which falls on February 12. That is down by 40% compared to 2019, before the outbreak of the virus, but a 10% increase on last year, according to the Ministry of Transport. The projected daily number of passenger trips – about 40 million a day – are double the current volume, putting the country’s disease control work to the test. Feng Zijian, Deputy Director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, suggested the public avoid crowded places or dining in public spaces during the holiday. “The length of time spent on shopping at supermarkets or eating at restaurants is suggested to be capped at under two hours,” he added. 

A WeChat-based mini-program for checking health codes in Beijing has started to show users’ Covid-19 vaccination status in preparation for a de facto immunity passport, though many uncertainties remain about its implementation, according to the China Daily. Those who have received the first dose of the vaccine have found that their app has added a line u

China’s foreign direct investment (FDI) increased by 6.2% year-on-year in 2020 to reach a record high of CNY999.98 billion, according to China’s Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM). China overtook the U.S. and regained the title of the world’s top destination for FDI, thanks to its effective anti-epidemic measures that allowed factories to restart while production in the rest of the world was still affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. China’s actual use of FDI rose in total amount, range of growth and world share. FDI from the top 15 countries and regions surged 6.4% year-on-year, taking up 98% of the FDI inflow. Investments from the Netherlands and the UK led, with increases of 47.6% and 30.7%, respectively. Investment from ASEAN in China was up 0.7%. More FDI went into the services and high-technology sectors. The actual use of FDI in the services industries grew 13.9%, while that of high-tech industries rose 11.4%, according to MOFCOM. In U.S. dollar terms, foreign capital inflow went up by 4.5% year-on-year to USD144.37 billion last year.

Globally, FDI flows are likely to have decreased by 30% to 40% year-on-year in 2020, according to a report by UNCTAD. In 2019, the U.S. was the largest recipient of FDI, attracting USD251 billion, followed by China with USD140 billion. “The huge FDI flows to China are in stark contrast to other major economies such as the U.S. and Europe last year, after investment fled abroad due to uncertainties over production and coronavirus control,” Cong Yi, Professor at the Tianjin University of Finance and Economics, told the Global Times. In 2020, China was the only major economy to expand, with a GDP growth rate of 2.3%. Consumer spending represented 54.3% of total economic output, marking a new high.

Asgar Rangoonwala, Chairman of the Pharmaceutical Association Committee of the China Association of Enterprises with Foreign Investment, said the Committee’s 42 multinational members are very optimistic about the potential and future development of the healthcare market in China and will step up investments. Italian tire maker Pirelli plans to invest more in tires with technical features such as noise-cancellation, run-flat and seal-inside functions that are suitable for new energy vehicles (NEVs). Zhou Hong, CEO of Roche Pharma China, said China is advancing higher-standard opening-up, stabilizing foreign investment and pursuing higher-quality development, and the company will invest more in China as it feels fully confident in its future. Rogier Janssens, Managing Director and General Manager of the healthcare arm of Merck China, said with China’s further opening up, foreign enterprises gain more benefits in terms of market access and intellectual property protection. The ever-improving business environment will enable foreign companies to better operate their businesses, Janssens said, as reported by the China Daily. Overall, global FDI had collapsed in 2020, falling by 42% to an estimated USD859 billion, from USD1.5 trillion in 2019, according to UNCTAD’s Investment Trends Monitor.

Cross-border e-commerce platforms, which now have become the only channel for many domestic consumers who want to buy overseas products, have become indispensable for foreign brands who want to keep onboard their Chinese consumers. The cross-border business-to-consumer (B2C) marketplace under Alibaba Group – one of the most popular platforms in China – had more than 29,000 brands across 5,800 categories at the end of December 2020, over 80% of them entering China for the first time. Brands, particularly small- and medium-sized players that have been hard-hit by the Covid-19 pandemic, are trying their best to enter new markets and find fresh channels for growth, according to the platform.

Apart from Tmall, another leading platform, JD Worldwide, also previously said it has helped 270 new foreign brands to further expand sales channel in China in the first half of 2020 to meet the increasing consumption demand. The “foreign brands festival” has attracted an increasing number of Chinese consumers to purchase online. Over the past year, China’s cross-border e-commerce imports and exports increased by 31.1% year-on-year, according to the General Administration of Customs. Figures have further improved from the first half of 2020, when trade volumes via cross-border e-commerce platforms increased by 26.2% year-on-year, with exports and imports up by 28.7% and 24.4%, respectively. 

“Under the weight of the pandemic, cross-border e-commerce has gone from strength to strength,” Customs Spokesman Li Kuiwen, said. Chinese e-commerce platforms have also been investing heavily to provide convenience to foreign brands and shorten procedures. For instance, Tmall Global announced a new suite of solutions at the 2021 Tmall Global New Seller Virtual Summit last week, to help global brands capture growing consumption opportunities in China. “We hope to provide foreign merchants with more confidence through this virtual summit, and provide solutions for those who cannot ‘go out’ due to the pandemic,” Maggie Liu, General Manager of Tmall Global, told the Global Times. “Chinese consumers can’t travel abroad right now, but the demand is still there,” Liu added. The most popular product categories are health and beauty products, and home appliances. Overseas brands and retailers can receive tailored consultation, operations and content support as well as other value-added services through Tmall Global and its partner network worldwide. 

JD.com held online investment promotion conferences in South Korea and Singapore last year to reach local brand merchants and to help them enter the Chinese market. Chinese e-commerce platforms are also paying attention to logistics. Tmall Global has set up bonded warehouses  and arranged for chartered flights, the Global Times reports. 

President Xi Jinping elaborated by video link on China’s stance on multilateral?ism and expressed opposition to the building of “small circles” and starting a new Cold War, to the World Economic Forum annual meeting, normally held in Davos, Switzerland, but this year organized digitally. These acts, as well as efforts to “reject, threaten or intimi?date others, to will?fully impose decoupling, supply disruption or sanc?tions, and to create isolation or estrangement will only  push the world into division and even confrontation”, Xi said. History and reality have made it clear that the misguided approach of antagonism and confrontation, be it in the form of a cold war, hot war, trade war or tech war, would eventually hurt all countries’ inter?ests and undermine everyone’s well-being, Xi said.

The speech was Xi’s second appearance at a Davos event as Chi?nese President. His first was in Jan?uary 2017, when he reaffirmed China’s pledges on supporting eco?nomic globalization and building an open world economy. “We cannot tackle common chal?lenges in a divided world, and con?frontation will lead us to a dead end,” Xi said. Multilateralism is about having international affairs addressed through consultation and the world’s future decided by everyone working together, Xi said. Multilateralism should not be used as a pretext for acts of unilater?alism, and “selective multilateral?ism” should not be an option, he said. Xi noted that state-to-state rela?tions should be coordinated and regulated through proper institu?tions and rules. The strong should not bully the weak, and decisions should not be made by simply showing off strong muscles or wav?ing a big fist, he said. “We should respect and accom?modate differences, avoid med?dling in other countries’ internal affairs, and resolve disagreements through consultation and dia?logue,” Xi said. To tackle the challenges of mankind, Xi added, the right approach is to safeguard multi?lateralism and act on the vision of a community with a shared future for mankind.

President Xi called for more efforts to build an open world economy, uphold the multilateral trading regime, dis?card discriminatory and exclusion?ary standards, rules and systems, and remove barriers to trade, investment and technological exchanges. Xi stressed the importance of sticking to the concept of coopera?tion based on mutual benefit and guaranteeing all countries’ equal rights to development. “We should advocate fair compe?tition, like competing with each other for excellence in a racing field, not beating each other on a wrestling arena,” he said.

In his speech, Xi listed four major tasks that should be addressed at the current time, namely stepping up macro-economic policy coordi?nation, abandoning ideological prejudice, bridging the gap between developed and developing nations, and uniting against global challenges. Xi also reaffirmed China’s com?mitment to further boosting open?ing-up, promoting sustainable development, advancing innova?tion and promoting a new type of international relations. He also expressed confi?dence in the global fight against Covid-19 despite its recent resurgence, the China Daily reports. 

French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi participated in the meeting, but U.S. President Joe Biden did not.

Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport was the world’s busiest airport with 43.768 million passengers in 2020, the first time for a Chinese airport to reach the top of the ranking, breaking the record of Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in the U.S. after 22 years. Baiyun’s passenger throughput in 2018 was 69.74 million, ranking 13^th globally, and it climbed to 11^th place in 2019 with 73.39 million. In 2020, the global air transport industry was in a downturn, affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. With the gradual effective control of the epidemic in China and the resumption of work and production, domestic air transport recovered. Although the passenger throughput of Baiyun airport in 2020 was 40% lower than in 2019, it surpassed Atlanta’s and became the world’s busiest airport for the first time. Hartsfield-Jackson’s passenger throughput was 42.9 million in 2020, a year-on-year decrease of more than 60%. 

Guangzhou Baiyun airport said that its operations were significantly affected by the epidemic at the beginning of last year, as in February passenger flow fell to a “freezing point” of 967,000. But activity started to pick up in March 2020, and the performance continued to improve for 10 consecutive months. In July 2020, the capacity ranked first in China, and during the eight days of the National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival holidays, a total of 1.33 million passengers were welcomed and 10,100 planes took off and landed, a record high since the outbreak of the coronavirus. In November 2020, Baiyun became the only domestic airport to exceed 5 million passengers after the outbreak, the Global Times reports.