How did China’s industrial economy run in 2021, and what lies ahead for 2022? How will App governance advance, and is the auto chip shortage easing? At a State Council Information Office briefing, MIIT officials answered hot questions on industry and communications.
Industry keeps recovering
Industrial operations faced real pressure last year: rising commodity prices and tight international shipping weighed on market expectations and pushed up costs. But a series of stabilisation policies helped the industry overcome the drag. Value-added industrial output above designated size grew 9.6% for the year – a two-year average of 6.1% – with manufacturing up 9.8%.
Growth fell back in Q3 under compounding pressures, then recovered in Q4 as relief measures and energy supply and price stabilisation took effect, providing important support for steady macroeconomic growth.
Structure also improved and supply chain resilience rose: high-tech manufacturing value-added grew 18.2%; industrial robot and integrated circuit output rose 44.9% and 33.3% respectively; and specialised-and-innovative SMEs kept expanding.
Officials acknowledged that Q1 2022 still faces considerable downward pressure and pledged a combination of measures: investment’s key role in stabilising industrial growth, expanded consumption, energy supply coordination, and concentrated effort on chip shortages in autos and other sectors.
App governance continues
MIIT focused its App rectification on unauthorised permission access and excessive personal information collection, improving institutional standards, strengthening special governance, combining technical and administrative tools, and treating problems at the source.
Twelve rounds of technical spot checks ran through 2021, flagging 1,549 non-compliant apps and removing 514 that refused to rectify. The national App detection platform can now test 180,000 apps per month, and the ‘can’t close’ and ‘random redirect’ splash-screen pop-up problems are basically solved.
In 2022 MIIT will improve full-chain regulation with a focus on key responsibility chains, covering app stores, third-party software development kits, terminal makers and key internet firms; it will also run look-back reviews and coordinate with other regulators to build a safer, cleaner app environment.
The briefing also reported 1.425 million 5G base stations built cumulatively, with 2022 a key year for large-scale 5G application development and continued network coverage improvement.
Easing the auto chip shortage
Global integrated circuit manufacturing capacity stayed tight last year, hitting the auto industry hard – many domestic and foreign automakers cut production or paused it briefly. MIIT took multiple measures to protect chip supply and keep the auto industry running stably.
As market adjustment mechanisms take effect and governments, automakers and chip firms work together, the chip shortage in autos is gradually easing, officials said – though the global IC supply chain still faces severe challenges and chip supply will remain tight for some time.
Next steps: strengthen communication and cooperation with relevant countries and regions, encourage domestic and foreign leading companies to invest more across the whole chip supply chain, promote the free flow of resources, and foster a fair market environment for high-quality IC industry development.
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