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Engel’s Law at work: China’s H1 income and consumption data in context

By continuing to browse our site you agree to our use of cookies, revised Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. You can change your cookie settings through your browser. Editor's note: Warwick Powell is adjunct professor at Queensland University of Technology. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN. Maturing incomes, structural upgrading and the limits of aggregate narratives The National Bureau of Statistics' mid-year release on households' income and consumption expenditure delivers a data-driven rebuttal to persistent claims of stagnation in China. In the first half of 2026, nationwide per capita disposable income reached 22,981 yuan ($3,395), marking a nominal increase of 5.2% and a real increase of 4.2% after adjusting for prices. This is no picture of frozen wages or hollowed-out household finances. Wage income grew 5.3%, net business income 6.5%, and transfer income 5.8%. These gains reflect broad-based progress amid global uncertainties. Rural areas led the way, with per capita disposable income rising 6.4% nominally and 5.5% in real terms, comfortably outpacing urban growth of 4.4% nominal and 3.4% real.

July 28, 2026

Business

Will Europe follow the path of American-style protectionism?

By continuing to browse our site you agree to our use of cookies, revised Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. You can change your cookie settings through your browser. European Union flags seen at the Berlaymont building in Brussels, Belgium, July 20, 2026. /VCG Editor's note: Xu Deshun is a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation under the Ministry of Commerce. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN. Following the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, countries around the world should have joined forces to overcome common challenges and worked together to restore global economic growth. Yet reality has fallen short of this expectation. According to UNCTAD's Trade and Development Report 2025, the global economy is projected to grow at an average annual rate of 2.7% during 2023-2026, below the 3.0% average recorded between 2011 and 2019, the pre-pandemic period. This slowdown stems from a complex interplay of factors, among which the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the conflict in the Middle East, and the uncertainty surrounding the US trade policy have had particularly significant adverse effects.

July 28, 2026

Business

China’s new ‘new three’ industrial upgrade

By continuing to browse our site you agree to our use of cookies, revised Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. You can change your cookie settings through your browser. China's foreign trade is undergoing a critical structural upgrade. Moving past cost-reliant manufacturing exports, the country now relies on continuous technological innovation to sharpen its global edge, transforming from a traditional manufacturing exporter to a high-end, innovation-driven trade player.

July 28, 2026

Business

Graphics: China’s new ‘new three’ high-tech exports in numbers

By continuing to browse our site you agree to our use of cookies, revised Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. You can change your cookie settings through your browser. While exports of electric vehicles, lithium batteries and solar cells are known as China's "new three," the country's manufacturing lineup is rapidly evolving. Robots, artificial intelligence (AI) and innovative medicines – labeled the "new 'new three'" – have emerged as powerful new foreign trade growth drivers in the first half of the year.

July 28, 2026

Business

China issues document calling for objectivity over ‘excess capacity’

By continuing to browse our site you agree to our use of cookies, revised Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. You can change your cookie settings through your browser. China's Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) on Tuesday released a document titled "China's Position on the So-called Excess Capacity Issue" to clarify the facts surrounding the matter and elaborate China's policy stance on the issue. The document states that the rapid development of China's modern industries has been driven by innovation, adding that the relationship between manufacturing capacity and demand is a changing dynamic in a market economy. The document urges all parties to be open-minded and objective when it comes to the issue of capacity, saying that protectionism can only disturb global trade and bring long-term risks to global growth. File photo of a solar panel factory in China's Jiangxi Province. /VCG Following the release of the document, Lin Weilong, a MOFCOM researcher, told the press that China's industrial capacity utilization is at a reasonable level — 74.4% among factories over a designated size in 2025.

July 28, 2026

Business

CATL-backed smart driving tech firm to kick off Hong Kong IPO this week: sources

NASN Intelligent Tech could launch its book-building as early as Thursday and debut in early August NASN Intelligent Tech, a mainland Chinese smart driving motion control technologies company, is seeking to kick off its initial public offering (IPO) as soon as Thursday, according to people familiar with the matter. Founded in 2016, NASN completed multiple funding rounds before the IPO, with CATL and Hillhouse Investment each holding more than 3 per cent of shares. Other backers include Qiming Venture Partners and the Bank of China Capital. Prior to the IPO, NASN announced that CLSA stepped down as one of its overall coordinators, without disclosing the reason for the termination. Haitong International Securities and BOCI Asia continue to serve as joint sponsors. The company remains unprofitable, posting a 2025 full-year loss of 189 million yuan (US$26.9 million), up 12 per cent year on year, and a first-quarter loss this year of 54.9 million yuan, up 37 per cent, driven by high R&D spending. It expects to remain operating at a loss for 2026.

July 28, 2026

Business

How a displaced F1 race could be Malaysia’s ‘blessing in disguise’

Malaysia once decided Formula One was too expensive to keep, but Bahrain’s displaced Grand Prix has given it an unexpected route back to the calendar, as well as a chance to test whether the sport can still deliver value without the full financial burden of a long-term comeback. Analysts say the one-off race, made possible by the war in Iran and the cancellation of April’s races in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, offers Malaysia more than a nostalgic return to Sepang: it provides a timely tourism lift...

July 28, 2026

Business

US walks out on France at UN over human rights criticism

Rift deepens after sharp clash over UN rights chief’s second term and a scathing social media post US diplomats walked out as their French counterparts were speaking at the United Nations on Monday after America’s close European ally criticised the Trump administration’s human rights record. The surprise move during a UN Security Council meeting on Ukraine followed US opposition to giving UN human rights chief Volker Turk another four-year term. The reappointment on Friday got overwhelming support, including from France. The US walkout reflects not only the more strained relations between President Donald Trump and his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, but also wider tensions between the US and Europe. These include questions over Trump’s commitment to Nato, possible changes to US troop deployments in Europe, and Trump’s desire to control Greenland, which belongs to Nato member Denmark. Trump has complained that Europeans, who were not consulted, did not help the US during the Iran war. Amid the tensions, Macron has taken a lead in trying to build up Europe’s military and ensure a nuclear umbrella as one of the continent’s two nuclear powers, along with Britain.

July 28, 2026

Business

How early screening saved Hong Kong woman from her family’s liver cancer fate

Health authorities renew call for early hepatitis B screening, citing 40 per cent of 410,000 patients in city being unaware of condition Hongkonger Ms Lam has long known she is carrying a ticking time bomb after her mother and grandmother died of liver cancer. Her mother was completely asymptomatic until a late-stage diagnosis left no option for surgery. “I knew I carried the hepatitis B virus when I was in my twenties and had since then undergone regular health check-ups to manage the bomb,” the woman in her fifties recalled. Her regular checks were only disrupted during the Covid-19 pandemic. When she returned for a check-up in 2024, tests showed a surging viral load and a liver tumour despite her not feeling any pain. Caught early, the tumour was successfully removed, and she was back on her feet just days after the operation. Now taking daily medication with stable blood readings, she has overhauled her lifestyle. “Fortunately, what happened to my mother did not happen to me … a long battle has begun, and I need to build my strength to fight it,” she said.

July 28, 2026

Business

What Hong Kong can learn from Northern Metropolis’ first land tender

Pilot tender of large mixed-use plot for public-private development shows scale of complexity requires flexibility and constant adjustment Major development projects involve balancing public policy goals with commercial realities. Governments seek to shape long-term outcomes, while investors must assess the risks, capital commitments and expected returns. Successful urban transformation programmes typically emerge when these perspectives are aligned. One key lesson is that large mixed-use developments are complex. Unlike a traditional residential land sale, the tender required bidders to consider not only housing development but also the delivery and operation of innovation and technology-related facilities over an extended period. This broadens the range of expertise, partnerships and financial commitments required.

July 28, 2026

Business

China court rules sharing family disputes in chat is domestic violence after dad embarrasses son

Son seeks court order to stop father from posting harmful messages and harassing family members A Chinese court issued a personal protection order to restrict a man’s behaviour after he repeatedly posted arguments with his wife in his son’s school chat groups. The Shanghai Pudong New Area People’s Court took this action after determining that the father’s behaviour constituted domestic violence. This case was recently publicised, igniting heated online discussions. The Shanghai man, surnamed Lin, had been estranged from his wife for an extended period. His son lived with his mother and had long been enduring the conflicts between his parents. Since November last year, Lin had repeatedly used “extremely emotional and derogatory” language in communications within his son’s class chat group, the parents’ group, and a neighbourhood group. In those messages, he accused his wife and parents-in-law of destroying their family and alienating his son from him. As the messages circulated, Lin junior began to feel ashamed in front of his classmates, teachers, and neighbours.

July 28, 2026

Business

China team unearths world’s oldest amber, hidden in ancient Xinjiang coal seam

Ancient plants were capable of producing resin to protect themselves 65 million years earlier than previously thought, study finds Until now, the oldest known amber to have been isolated from rock and confirmed through chemical analysis dated to the Late Carboniferous period, around 320 million years ago, when the first herbivores also emerged. The researchers, led by Luo Cihang, from the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, detailed their findings in a paper published by the peer-reviewed journal Science Advances on July 15. According to the paper, the palaeontologists were initially sceptical when they found hundreds of microscopic pieces of what appeared to be amber preserved in a coal seam dating from the Middle Devonian period around 393 million to 383 million years ago. When Luo and his team travelled to Xinjiang in 2019, they did not expect the fossil samples they planned to examine and collect from the region’s unusual coal seam would yield the world’s oldest known amber, the paper said.

July 28, 2026