China

科学有序推进农业转移人口市民化

Guangming Daily | Local Language | News | Nov. 28, 2025 | UndeterminedDemographics

The Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Party emphasized advancing people-centered new-type urbanization by scientifically and orderly promoting the citizenization of the agricultural migrant population. This process involves transferring rural labor to urban areas while ensuring access to basic public services based on permanent residence. Since the reform and opening-up, China has experienced rapid urbanization with hundreds of millions of agricultural migrants contributing to urban development. The current strategy aims to improve employment quality and living standards of these migrants, aligning with the 15th Five-Year Plan's focus on quality and scientific urbanization.

By the end of 2024, nearly 300 million migrant workers were reported in China, indicating a steady increase. Promoting their citizenization helps expand the domestic consumer market, unleashes demand potential, creates investment and employment opportunities, and drives urban infrastructure and public service development. Equal access to urban public services can mobilize the migrants' enthusiasm and creativity and ensure shared modernization progress.

Despite achievements in public service coverage, employment quality, and housing for migrant workers, challenges remain, including disparities between household registration urbanization and actual resident urbanization, limited access to affordable housing, and unresolved issues around children's education. With urbanization transitioning from rapid expansion to quality and efficiency improvement, efforts should focus on employment and skills training targeting new-generation migrant workers; ensuring educational rights for accompanying children through resource optimization and enrollment reforms; implementing comprehensive housing保障 measures including affordable rental housing; and safeguarding social insurance rights by removing registration restrictions and enhancing coverage and inclusiveness of social insurance systems for migrants and flexible workers.

存储上下游紧急应对“超级周期” 供应链加码国产芯片

Sina Finance | Local Language | News | Nov. 28, 2025 | Supply Chain Issues

Driven by strong AI demand, the storage industry is experiencing a pronounced "super cycle," with prices for DRAM and NAND Flash chips surging significantly in 2025. For example, DRAM 4GB DDR4X prices increased from $7 in January to over $30 by mid-November, while Flash 64G eMMC prices rose from $3.2 to over $8. This price inflation has prompted some manufacturers to delay procurement, disassemble inventory phones for chips, and plan price increases on new devices. The shortages, described as the most severe in 20 years, have led to customers receiving only about 30% of their original orders, causing some international electronics brand leaders to intervene personally to secure supply.

AI server demand is the main driver behind this surge, resulting in supply chain disruptions that have forced companies like NVIDIA to warn of GPU price hikes and suspend certain product lines. AMD has also announced significant price increases across its GPU portfolio. Domestic companies such as Haiguang Information and Rockchip have reported cost pressures and shifts in storage solutions due to rising prices. Module manufacturers have moved from destocking to competing over limited inventory, particularly as international memory suppliers prioritize North American server markets over China, tightening local supply.

Despite the challenges, some domestic firms in China are benefiting from the recovery, and packaging and testing factories have reported growth. The storage price increases are expected to continue through 2026, driving cautious production plans among OEMs. Low- and mid-end phone manufacturers are hardest hit due to slower DDR5 adoption, leading to adjustments in storage configurations to manage costs. Major firms like Lenovo are increasing chip inventories to mitigate supply tightness and avoid passing costs to consumers, though production forecasts for smartphones and laptops in 2026 have been downgraded due to these pressures.

In response, the domestic storage chip supply chain in China is rapidly adapting, with companies forming strategic partnerships to diversify supply sources, particularly with local manufacturers like Yangtze Memory and ChangXin Memory. These domestic producers have improved their technology and capacity, achieving significant market share gains, especially in servers and some phone segments. ChangXin Memory’s shipments are estimated to rise significantly, and they have launched new DDR5 products, demonstrating growing competitiveness. Industry analysts highlight that the longer-term relief from price increases depends on the ramp-up of DDR5 capacity in mainland China, but the trend towards domestic chip adoption is strengthening amid this storage super cycle.

China Daily | English | News | Nov. 28, 2025 | Cyber Attacks and Data Loss

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in China are expanding their digital trade presence to reach global markets through platforms like TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, and Alibaba. This digital expansion now includes businesses from major cities as well as second- and third-tier cities, with over 120,000 cross-border e-commerce businesses recorded in June. However, this increased online activity also exposes SMEs to a rise in cyberattacks, with research showing that 46 percent of small businesses experienced cyber incidents in the past year. Nearly 20 percent of small businesses impacted by cyberattacks close within a year.

SMEs represent a significant part of China's economy, accounting for 90 percent of businesses, 70 percent of employment, and 50 percent of GDP. As of September 2025, there are 63.49 million SMEs in China, making the sector a critical driver of economic stability and growth. Additionally, SMEs contribute heavily to innovation, holding 75.3 percent of valid invention patents developed independently in 2024.

In response to rising cyber threats, Mastercard has introduced a vulnerability scanner to help SMEs identify and address cybersecurity risks on their websites and apps. Mastercard also uses generative AI to analyze transaction data and detect potential fraud, processing around 150 billion transactions annually with fraud risk scoring. The Chinese market's specific characteristics enhance these cybersecurity innovations.

To further protect SMEs, Chinese regulatory authorities, including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the National Financial Regulatory Administration, have launched a second round of cyber insurance pilots. The first round in 2024 produced over 1,500 policies, generating premiums exceeding 150 million yuan ($21.14 million) and coverage worth nearly 11.5 billion yuan. These initiatives aim to strengthen the cybersecurity resilience of SMEs nationwide.