China is like, really putting in a lot of effort to support businesses and workers affected by the trade war, you know? Officials from two key government departments had separate meetings with private sector representatives on Wednesday, like back-to-back, which is kind of intense. This shows that China still has a lot of work to do to stabilize its economy and labor market, with uncertainties hanging around even though Beijing and Washington agreed to roll back tariffs on each other’s goods on Monday.
Bai Qingyuan, who is the deputy chief of the State Administration of Market Regulation (SAMR), met with representatives from major Chinese internet platforms and banks on Wednesday to talk about ways to support the self-employed. And then, like a few hours later, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) announced that its chief, Zheng Shanjie, also met with a group of private sector representatives on the same day. So, you know, China is really trying to figure things out here.
China has a bunch of self-employed small traders who make a living by selling stuff overseas through online platforms, which is pretty cool. The SAMR acknowledged that helping these self-employed folks deal with the trade war was a big part of their mission to “stabilize employment, companies, markets, and expectations.” They had a meeting with execs from big platforms like Alipay, Douyin, Xiaohongshu, and Pinduoduo, and were like, “Hey, you tech giants need to come up with better ways to support these self-employed peeps, okay?” So, yeah, China is really on it when it comes to helping out the little guys in the midst of all this trade war craziness.
I’m not really sure why this matters, but it seems like China is really trying to make sure everyone is okay during this trade war situation. I mean, I guess it’s important to support businesses and workers, right? So, good on China for taking some steps to help out. Who knows what will happen next, but at least they’re trying, right?
