China sent three astronauts to its space station and announced it plans to land astronauts on the moon before 2030. China’s factory activity contracts further in May and profits of China’s major industrial firms fell at an annualized rate of 20.6% in the first four months of the year. Sales of lottery tickets in China reached the highest in a decade in April.
The US House of Representatives passed the debt ceiling deal on Wednesday which was reached by US President Biden and Republican Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy. The US government announced on Saturday that it had reached a deal with 13 countries to make supply chains more resilient and secure.Thailand received one million Chinese tourists between January and May 18. And Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva announced the country will host the UN climate change conference in the Amazon region in 2025.
China launches Shenzhou-16 mission to Chinese space station
China launched the Shenzhou-16 spaceship on Tuesday, sending three astronauts to its space station, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
The spacecraft, atop a Long March-2F carrier rocket, lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China at 9:31a.m. Beijing time.
The three astronauts will replace the three-member crew of the Shenzhou-15, who arrived at the space station in November.
The Shenzhou-16 spacecraft successfully docked with the space station on Tuesday evening.
China factory activity contracts in May
China’s factory activity contracts further in May, official data showed on Wednesday.
The official manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) fell to 48.8 in May, down from 49.2 in April, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the lowest in the first five months of the year and below the 50-point mark that separates expansion from contraction.
The non-manufacturing PMI also fell to 54.5, down from 56.4 in April. The service PMI came in at 53.8, the slowest growth since January.
China's economy still needs to consolidate its basis during the recovery, said NBS’s senior statistician Zhao Qinghe.
China’s industrial profits drop in the first four months
Profits of China’s major industrial firms fell at an annualized rate of 20.6% in the first four months of the year, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed on Saturday.
Industrial firms posted a 18.2% decline in April alone, compared to a year-on-year drop of 19.2% in March.
State-owned companies saw their profits falling 17.9% while profits of the private firms fell 22.5%.
NBS statistician Sun Xiao said the country will focus on restoring and expanding demand, improve the level of production and marketing and boost business confidence.
China’s lottery sales reach decade high in April
Sales of lottery tickets in China reached the highest in a decade in April, data from the Ministry of Finance showed.
Lottery sales surged 62% from last year to 50.33 billion yuan in April.
The country sold 175.15 billion yuan worth of lottery tickets in the first four months of the year, up 49.3% from the same period last year.
China’s richest provinces along the coast, including Jiangsu, Guangdong, Zhejiang and Shandong , saw the biggest increase in lottery sales, according to official data.
China plans to land astronauts on moon before 2030
China plans to land astronauts on the moon before 2030, the China Manned Space Agency said at a press conference on Monday.
Lin Xiqiang, deputy director of the CMSA, said that Chia has recently initiated the lunar landing phase of its manned lunar exploration program with the goal of landing astronauts on the moon before 2030.
The program’s goal also includes mastering technologies including Earth-moon manned roundtrip, human-robot joint exploration, and accomplishing multiple tasks of landing, roving, sampling, and researching.
China approves Morgan Stanley futures firm
China approved the establishment of Morgan Stanley’s futures company in Beijing, according to the country’s securities regulator on Friday.
The Morgan Stanley Futures China was the second foreign-funded futures company after the China Securities Regulatory Commission approved the JPMorgan Chase Futures in June 2020.
China will support eligible overseas institutions to invest in domestic futures companies and continue to improve its futures market to serve the high-quality development of its real economy, the regulator said.
US announces Indo-Pacific deal
The US government announced on Saturday that it had reached a deal with 13 countries to make supply chains more resilient and secure.
The deal was the first of its kind in the US-led Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF).
US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told a press conference that the agreement would deepen America’s economic cooperation with IPEF countries.
The IPEF countries are still negotiating on three pillars - trade, clean energy, decarbonization and infrastructure, and tax and anti-corruption.
The US launched the IPEF with Australia, Brunei, Fiji, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam in May 2022.
US House passes debt ceiling deal
The US House of Representatives passed the debt ceiling deal on Wednesday which was reached by US President Biden and Republican Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy.
Earlier, Biden said the House will have passed the bill by Wednesday night while McCarthy told reporters he felt good about the upcoming vote.
The debt ceiling legislation would raise the government’s borrowing limit until January 2025.
Thailand receives 1 million Chinese tourists from Jan. to mid-May
Thailand received one million Chinese tourists between January and May 18, according to a government statement on Sunday.
The country expects the number Chinese tourists to reach its target of 5 million this year with spending of 446 billion baht, Reuters reporters quoting a statement from the Thai government.
A total number of 9.47 million foreign tourists visited Thailand from January to mid-May, compared with a total number of 11.15 million visitors in 2022.
Japan’s factory output falls in April
Japan’s factory output fell in April, government data showed on Wednesday.
Factory output fell 0.4% in April from March on a seasonally adjusted basis.
Output of semiconductor-manufacturing equipment dropped 24.6% while flat panel manufacturing equipment dropped 66.6%.
The index of industrial shipments fell 0.4% while that of inventories rose 0.3%.
Brazil to host COP30 in the Amazon in 2025
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva announced on Friday the country will host the UN climate change conference in the Amazon region in 2025.
Brazil will host the 30th UN Conference on Climate Change (COP30) in Belém, capital of the state of Pará, which is located in the Amazon Rainforest.
“If everyone’s talking about the Amazon, then why not hold the COP in an Amazon state so that they can find out more about the region? About its rivers, its forests, its fauna? People get ready – because visitors from all over the world are coming, and they’ll be amazed by the city of Belém," said Lula.
South Korea asks US to review chip subsidies
South Korea asked the Biden administration to review its criteria for new semiconductor subsidies as the impact of the rules will limit Korean chipmakers from expanding investment in countries like China.
In a public filing, the South Korean government asked the US Commerce Department to review and clarify the guardrail provision.
“The Republic of Korea (ROK) believes that the ‘guardrail provisions’ should not be implemented in a manner that imposes an unreasonable burden on companies investing in the United States,” the statement reads. ROK is South Korea’s official name.
South Korea asked the US government to review the proposed rule’s current definition of “material expansion”, and “legacy semiconductor”, according to the filing.
The US Commerce Department released the details of the guardrails for its CHIPS for America Incentive Program which restrict recipients of its support funds from expanding chip investment by up to 5% in foreign countries including China, Russia, Iran and North Korea.
