January 2023 / China

January 30 2023

Highlights of China’s judicial, procuratorial, public security work plan for 2023

Following a new roadmap for judicial, procuratorial and public security work in 2023, China is gearing up to modernize these areas further on its new journey toward a modern socialist country.

Below are highlights of the roadmap drawn at a central conference for judicial, procuratorial and public security work held in Beijing from Jan. 7 to 8.

-- Advancing the impartial administration of justice

The central conference urged dedicated efforts to focus on issues of public concern and to properly handle details relevant to people's vital interests.

Cases related to people's livelihoods, such as education, employment, medical care, housing, marriage, family affairs and social security, should be processed in accordance with the law, per the conference.

-- Pushing rule-based government administration, law enforcement

The conference also outlined efforts to advance the system of law-based government administration that balances powers with responsibilities, and that is both authoritative and effective.

It urged public security organs to redouble their law enforcement efforts in crucial areas related to people's well-being, comprehensively implement the benchmark standard system for administrative discretion, and boost the quality and efficiency of case-handling and law enforcement branches.

According to the Ministry of Public Security, efforts are being made to improve the supervision of law enforcement, boost the coverage of digitalized case-handling, and implement the recording mechanism throughout the entire process of law enforcement.

-- Offering sound lawmaking, legislation advice for emerging sectors

The conference called on relevant authorities to enhance their awareness of legislation, offer legislation advice promptly, and round out judicial interpretations related to emerging sectors such as the digital economy, artificial intelligence and autonomous driving.

Through their handling of cases in such sectors, judicial, procuratorial and public security authorities will be able to identify issues in a timely manner and grasp certain patterns, which lays a solid basis for the implementation of relevant legislation work, said Ma Huaide, president of the China University of Political Science and Law.

-- Tackling prominent public security issues

The conference put forward specific objectives and measures to tackle prominent public security problems. It called for efforts to crack down on gang crime on a regular basis and develop new anti-crime mechanisms and approaches.

In particular, it urged intensified efforts to combat wire and cyber fraud, as well as illegal online activities such as gambling, drug dealing and pyramid schemes.

-- Improving urban and rural community governance system

The conference specified efforts to improve the urban and rural community governance system further, with a combination of self-governance, the rule of law and the rule of virtue.

It delineated the responsibility for judicial, procuratorial and public security in primary-level governance, and urged carrying out troubleshooting campaigns and constructing a joint work system to solve disputes and conflicts through mediation, arbitration, administrative adjudication, administrative reconsideration and litigation.

January 30 2023

China’s consumer services see robust recovery as holiday consumption soars

As restaurants resume indoor dining and shopping malls reopen following the implementation of China's optimized COVID response measures, cities across China have returned to their usual hustle and bustle.

Yang Xiulong, board chairman of the Beijing Yan Restaurant, a high-end restaurant chain with 30 branches in the Chinese capital, said he felt the same. "I thought it would take some time for the catering industry to recover. But, given the current situation, I believe this recovery process will definitely be accelerated," he said.

Popular travel destinations like the resort city of Sanya or Zhangjiakou, where snow and ice sports flourish, welcomed an influx of tourists during the three-day New Year holiday, with many hotels fully booked. Staff at Pullman Resort Xishuangbanna in Yunnan Province said that popular rooms were booked out a week before the holiday kicked off.

Economic vitality has also been demonstrated in packed shopping centers and department stores. A monitoring system developed by Baidu Maps shows that the congestion index of shopping malls in cities like Chongqing, Xi'an, Beijing and Shenzhen increased significantly on Jan. 1.

According to the Consumer Market Big Data Laboratory (Shanghai), Shanghai's total offline consumption hit 12.01 billion yuan (about 1.74 billion U.S. dollars) from Dec. 31, 2022, to Jan. 1, 2023.

Businesses in many cities have issued consumption coupons to attract shoppers. In late December, Hohhot in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region issued vouchers worth a total of 38 million yuan, covering consumption in sectors such as retail, catering, home appliances, automobiles and e-commerce.

Guo Hongtu, an official of the bureau of commerce of Hohhot, said that customer flows in the city's shopping malls, supermarkets and restaurants have returned to 70 percent of their normal levels.

January 18 2023

China to maintain credit support for real economy

China will maintain credit support for the real economy and step up financial support for the development of the domestic supply and demand system, according to the country's central bank and its banking and insurance regulator on Tuesday.

China will ensure proper financial services for infrastructure, small and micro enterprises, and other key spheres. It will also ensure that the real estate financing runs smoothly and in an orderly fashion to prompt an overall economic upturn, according to a meeting jointly held by the People's Bank of China and the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission.

The two authorities urged major banks to front-load loans moderately, optimize their credit structure, and precisely underpin the key areas and weak links in national economic and social development.

Favorable policies such as inclusive loans for micro and small businesses should be thoroughly leveraged to meet the reasonable capital demand of companies related to the production and supply of medical resources, the two authorities said.

While reiterating the principle that "housing is for living in, not for speculation," they also pledged comprehensive measures to boost the operating and financing cash flows of high-quality property developers, and efforts to improve their balance sheets.

January 9 2023

STA Optimizes several tax collection and administration services

The State Taxation Administration ("STA") released on January 6, 2023 the Circular on Matters concerning Optimizing Several Tax Collection and Administration Services, to be effective on April 1, 2023.

The Circular optimized four items of tax collection and administration services, including streamlining the process for registration of changed information, fine-tuning the tax services for trans-provincial relocation, optimizing the duties for management of tax sources, and stepping up coordination of registration business with market regulators. Specifically, starting from April 1, 2023, taxpayers that have registered changed information with the market regulators according to law will not need to report the changes to the tax authorities, and the provincial tax authorities will, based on the changed information shared by the market regulators, automatically update the changes of registered information in the core tax collection and administration system.

   
January 12 2023

STA Clarifies Additional VAT Deduction Policy for 2023

The Ministry of Finance ("MOF") and the State Taxation Administration ("STA") jointly released on January 9, 2023 the Announcement of the Policies for Exemption and Reduction of Valued-added Tax ('VAT") on Small-scale VAT Taxpayers, which clarified the additional VAT deduction policy for 2023.

From January 1, 2023 to December 31, 2023, taxpayers in producer services are eligible for a 5 percent additional deduction of creditable input VAT in the current period from the tax amount payable, and taxpayers in life services are eligible for a 10 percent additional deduction of creditable input VAT in the current period from the tax amount payable, according to the Announcement, which also clarified that the measuring standards on taxpayers in producer services and life services are consistent with the previous rules, and other matters related to the additional VAT deduction policy would be subject to the No. 39 (2019) Announcement and the No.87 (2019) Announcement.

The STA released on the same day the Announcement of the Matters concerning the Tax Collection and Administration under the Policies for Exemption and Reduction of VAT on Small-scale VAT Taxpayers, as well as the new templates of the Statement for Applying a 5 Percent Additional VAT Deduction and the Statement for Applying a 10 Percent Additional VAT Deduction.

January 12 2023

STA Updates Preferential VAT Policies for Small-scale VAT Taxpayers

The Ministry of Finance ("MOF") and the State Taxation Administration ("STA") jointly released on January 9, 2023 the Announcement of the Policies for Exemption and Reduction of Valued-added Tax ("VAT") on Small-scale VAT Taxpayers.

From January 1, 2023 to December 31, 2023, small-scale VAT taxpayers with monthly sales of less than 100,000 yuan (inclusive) will be exempted from VAT. During the same period, small-scale VAT taxpayers can pay VAT at a rate of 1 percent on sales subject to a 3 percent VAT levy, and prepay VAT at a rate of 1 percent on items subject to a pre-levy VAT rate of 3 percent, according to the Announcement.

The STA released on the same day the Announcement of the Matters concerning the Tax Collection and Administration under the Policies for Exemption and Reduction of VAT on Small-scale VAT Taxpayers to clarify the rules on the tax collection and administration.

January 18 2023

Shanghai Expands Coverage of the Pilot Program for Issuance of Fully-digitalized E-invoices

From January 20th 2023, the newly registered taxpayers in Shanghai are included in the digital electronic invoice issuing pilot scope. Taxpayers shall no longer receive VAT electronic special invoice and VAT electronic ordinary invoice from the date of inclusion in the pilot project of digital electronic invoice invoicing. Taxpayers who have special circumstances and cannot be included in the trial of digital electronic invoice shall apply to the competent tax authorities for the use of other invoices according to the current regulations on invoice management.