XI: EFFORTS SECURE DECISIVE OUTCOME

Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, said on Wednesday that after arduous efforts, China has secured a decisive outcome in containing the spread of COVID-19 in Hubei province and its capital, Wuhan, the country's hardest-hit region.

With strong leadership by the CPC Central Committee and support from all, as well as the participation of the people in Hubei and Wuhan, China has secured hard-won outcomes with major strategic significance in the people's war on the novel coronavirus outbreak as the pandemic still rages globally, Xi said when presiding over a meeting of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee.

His remarks came with no new confirmed infections having been reported for 25 consecutive days in Hubei as of Tuesday. The last 12 patients recovered and were discharged from hospitals in Wuhan on Sunday.

The CPC Central Committee also identified a package of fiscal, taxation, financial, credit, investment and foreign trade policies to support economic and social development in Hubei given the difficulties it faces after its sacrifices in combating the virus, according to a statement released after the meeting.

As COVID-19 is still spreading abroad, China faces growing pressure from imported infections and increasing complexity in preventing domestic relapses, Xi said, urging consistent attention to epidemic control.

He asked all regions and departments to make unremitting efforts in virus prevention and control so as to provide effective safeguards for getting the economy and society back to normal and securing a decisive victory in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects.

Xi stressed efforts in the epidemic control work in key areas and for key groups, requiring Heilongjiang province to improve anti-epidemic measures, especially preventing infections in hospitals and making all-out efforts to treat patients.

Authorities in Hubei and Wuhan should continue to strengthen community-based prevention, improve contingency plans and provide more care and help for recovered patients, he said. Beijing should continue to perform its key anti-epidemic tasks.

With the May Day holiday approaching, Xi said local authorities should guarantee ventilation and disinfection in transportation venues and stations, and enhance epidemic prevention at scenic attractions.

The reopening of schools and resumption of classes should be advanced in an orderly manner, and schools are responsible for ensuring the physical and mental health of their faculty and students, he said.

In order to accelerate the resumption of work and life in Hubei, the meeting stressed that local Party committees and governments should focus on ensuring the employment and basic livelihood of residents, helping resolve their practical difficulties, such as finding jobs and going to school, and meeting the basic needs of people with special difficulties.

Hubei authorities should also help solve difficulties small and medium-sized enterprises face, promote pillar industries, such as automobile manufacturing and electronics, to resume development and speed up the construction of traditional infrastructure as well as new infrastructure, such as 5G and artificial intelligence, it said.

Meeting participants agreed to continue to provide more care for overseas Chinese, deepen international cooperation on containing the contagion, continue to provide help to countries in need within the nation's capacity, strengthen quality supervision on epidemic prevention materials and contribute to international anti-epidemic cooperation.

The meeting also discussed issues such as expanding agricultural production and sales to help increase farmers' incomes and strengthening the building of public health emergency systems.

YUAN'S ROLE IN GLOBAL PAYMENTS INCREASES

The yuan's share in international payments and settlement under the capital account hit a record in March, as cross-border investment replaced trade as the driving force for the Chinese currency's internationalization campaign, according to experts.

The country's forex regulator, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, said that yuan-denominated cross-border payments accounted for 38 percent of all the currencies by the end of March, a historic high since the figures were published.

What this means is that the yuan's position in global payments and settlements has improved, significantly after a period of stagnation since 2015, the earlier peak when the RMB was added to the Special Drawing Rights of the International Monetary Fund. China's financial opening-up has further boosted the use of yuan globally, said experts.

According to data provided by global financial messaging network SWIFT, the yuan remained the fifth most active currency for global payments in value terms during March, with a share of 1.85 percent, up from the 1.65 percent in January. The RMB payment value increased by 21.48 percent on a monthly basis in March, according to SWIFT data.

Although the novel coronavirus pandemic has disrupted global financial investment activities, China's capital and forex markets showed resilience. During the first quarter, the trade surplus in goods and services declined. The net capital outflow during the period may drop aggressively, or turn to a net inflow, compared with the $20.1 billion net capital outflow during the same period a year ago, said Guan Tao, chief global economist of BOC International (China) Co Ltd.

Globally, the prices of risky assets and commodities started to fall at an unprecedented speed since the COVID-19 outbreak. Prices of safe-haven assets, such as gold and government bonds, gained as investors reassessed the economic impact of the virus and rushed for safety and liquidity.

Supported by a relatively stable yuan in the first three months, overseas investment in China's bond markets rose by 48 percent or by $16.7 billion during the period, the regulator said.

China's equity market, however, experienced net capital outflows of 179.9 billion yuan ($25.43 billion), compared with a net inflow of 193.5 billion yuan in the first quarter of last year, official data showed. The global equity markets at the same time suffered the fastest drop in history and the asset price declines reached about half the magnitude seen in 2008 and 2009 at the worst point of the sell-off.

As the global financial conditions have tightened abruptly with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, China can offer yuan liquidity to the global market, through expanded overseas investment, increased cross-border lending, increased imports and offshore yuan deposits, said Tu Yonghong, deputy director of the international monetary institute under the Renmin University of China in Beijing.

"The COVID-19 pandemic may increase yuan-denominated cross-border investment and accelerate the internationalization process," she said. "The yuan liquidity will supplement the financing gaps arising due to dollar shortages."

Yi Gang, governor of the People's Bank of China, the central bank, said in a recent article that the PBOC would use conversional monetary policy tools as long as possible to support the long-term development strategy, and avoid excessive aggressive stimulus, which may lead to inflation and a surge of debt. That means, the yuan-denominated assets can maintain relatively higher returns as the "safe haven" for international investors, as many economies look for subzero interest rates, analysts said.

"Further opening up of the financial sector, especially for the yuan bond market, will help promote the internationalization of the Chinese currency," said Tu.

BEIJING LOWERS COVID-19 RESTRICTIONS

Beijing has lowered the intensity of its response to the COVID-19 outbreak from the top level to the second level based on the current situation, which will lead to adjustments of prevention and control measures, a senior official said on Wednesday.

"Beijing has been taking strict measures on both domestic and overseas travelers coming to the capital, as well as community control to prevent infection risks, which has proved to be effective," Chen Bei, deputy secretary-general of the Beijing municipal government, said at a news conference.

In Beijing, the risk of outbreak has been generally mitigated, she said.

By the end of Tuesday, 15 of the 16 districts in Beijing had reported zero new local cases for more than 36 days. Chaoyang district, which was listed as the high-risk area for COVID-19 control, will have no new local cases for 14 days by Thursday, which means it will no longer be considered a high-risk area.

On April 14, Beijing reported a cluster of infections involving four family members caused by a Chinese male student who came home from Miami, Florida, in the United States.

Chen also announced that people who left Beijing for business trips and travelers who come to Beijing from low-risk areas will not need to undergo a 14-day quarantine starting from Thursday. People who need to check into hotels in Beijing no longer need to provide nucleic acid testing results as long as they have a "green code", which is an indication that a person is free of COVID-19 symptoms according to a health code app.

According to Qunar, an online travel service provider, the number of flight reservations from Beijing increased 15-fold within a half-hour after the news was announced.

Chen Qiulin, director of the Institute of Population and Labor Economics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, was quoted by Beijing News as saying that lowering the response grade will reduce people's worries about going out, which will help to increase consumption.

As of Tuesday, 23 provinces and municipalities have reported no new local cases for more than 28 successive days. As many as 28 provinces and municipalities have lowered their emergency grade, and no rebound of cases has occurred.

China's response for public health emergencies has four grades, from 1 to 4, with the top being Grade 1.

Neighboring Hebei province and Tianjin municipality will also lower their emergency response to COVID-19 from the top level to the second level starting on Thursday morning, according to their governments, which means that by then, only Hubei province will still maintain the Grade 1 response. Nine provinces and municipalities including Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Hebei and Guangdong are at Grade 2.

Prevention and control works will continue in the province to lower infection risks brought by imported cases and to avert a rebound of local cases.

As of Tuesday, Hebei had reported 10 imported cases of COVID-19, six of which had been cured and discharged from hospital, according to the Health Commission of Hebei. The province had a total of 318 confirmed cases among local residents, with 312 of the people surviving.

TOURISM BOUNCING BACK AS COVID-19 COMES UNDER CONTROL

The online travel agency platform Qunar.com recorded search volume of its air tickets departing Beijing jump 15 times compared to the previous hour in less than half an hour after it was announced on Wednesday that Beijing will lower its response level of public health emergency from level 1 to level 2 from Thursday 00:00, Securities Daily reported.

According to the daily, people visiting or returning to Beijing from domestic low-risk areas will no longer need 14-day quarantine from April 30. People already in quarantine in Beijing will be allowed to go out soon.

Within one hour after the news was released, the OTA platform of Alibaba saw 500 percent surge from previous day in purchase of air tickets to or out of Beijing and saw 400 percent increase in train tickets bound for or departing from Beijing.

Statics from Tujia.com, an online homestay platform, showed that in two hours after the news was announced, search and bookings for homestay quadrupled from April 28.

Data of Meituan also showed search volume for scenic spots in Beijing on the afternoon when the news was released grew 2.99 times over the same period last week.

"This reflects people are planning for the coming holiday and they have stronger will for an outing," said an insider working at Airbnb, "Short-distance, neighboring natural scenic spots and local commercial facilities will first recovery as the epidemic situation is gradually stabilized."

Data from Qunar.com showed guest house prices in the Labor Day holiday of holiday hotels in hotspot areas have rebounded to the level over the same period last year.

Tujia.com said the average price for a homestay room for the coming holiday has reached 1,200 yuan ($169.60), up around 60 percent year-on-year.

The homestay industry is undergoing an accelerating shuffle caused by the COVID-19. Airbnb said: "The homestay market will employ a more rational method after the epidemic, qualified homestay providers will survive."

Airbnb added: "The epidemic is temporary but progress of the industry is a long-term issue. As long as there are yarns for good life, tourism industry will certainly recover."

MAY DAY TRAVEL INCREASE STILL FAR BELOW 2019 LEVELS

China is expected to see 117 million passenger trips during the upcoming five-day May Day holiday, a spokesman with the Ministry of Transport said on Thursday.

This year's holiday, which falls between Friday and Tuesday, may see a daily average of over 23.36 million trips. Although travel volume has been gradually rebounding, the expected daily figure is only 34.8 percent of last year's daily passenger trip volume, said Wu Chungeng, the ministry's spokesman.

The country's civil aviation sector is expected to see a total of 2.9 million trips during the holiday, with 580,000 trips on a daily basis according to the Civil Aviation Administration of China.

Yu Biao, deputy director of the administration's transport department, said on Thursday daily passenger trips during the May Day holiday may witness an increase of 43 percent compared with the volume during the three-day Tomb Sweeping break in early April. However, it still marks a year-on-year drop of about 66.8 percent.

"The overall passenger load factor of flights, standing at no more than 70 percent, will be significantly lower than the same period of previous years," he added.

Wu also noted that although the holiday is extended, the public's desire to travel has been slashed as epidemic prevention and control has become a long-term normal nationwide. Cancellation of non-urgent travel is the current consensus.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Our opinion of people depends less upon what we see in them than upon what they make us see in ourselves. - Sarah Grand