He Yongqian: Friends from the press, good afternoon. Welcome to MOFCOM regular press conference. First, I have an announcement to make.

On the 2025 National Online New Year Shopping Festival

On February 5, the 2025 National Online New Year Shopping Festival successfully concluded. The festival adopted a “3+N” model for the first time, which included three main events, namely the launch ceremony of the 2025 National Online New Year Shopping Festival in Jiangxi, Shanghai, Guangxi, the Silk Road E-commerce Spring Festival and the China (Guangxi)-ASEAN Online New Year Shopping Festival, and numerous supporting consumption activities across localities and platforms to stimulate consumption. According to the big data monitoring of key e-commerce platforms, during the festival, the daily average online retail sales in China increased by 6.2% year-on-year, ushering a good start of online consumption in 2025. This year’s festival has a variety of highlights.

First, new hotspots created by favorable policies. The expanded trade-in program has paid off expeditiously. Various localities have made diverse efforts to subsidize the purchase of consumer goods and facilitate recycling of replaced ones in light of the consumer demand during the festival. Online sales of dishwashers and water purifiers increased by 71.8% and 47.4% respectively. Favorable visa-free policies and the extension of holidays have driven the rapid growth of cross-border tourism. Special activities such as “Winter Tour” and “Spring Festival Tour in China” have boosted both inbound and outbound trips. Online travel sales increased by 35.2%, including a 72.3% increase in outbound visits. During the Spring Festival holiday, short-haul inbound tourism orders from Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Thailand grew by 130%, while long-haul inbound tourism orders from Europe and the United States increased by 120%.

Second, new trends led by intangible cultural heritage. The first intangible cultural heritage-tagged Spring Festival has given a strong boost to spending on domestic brands with Chinese design elements. Localities have held various activities focused on the traditional cultural elements such as customs and tastes of the Chinese New Year. Online sales of intangible cultural heritage goods such as crafts based on the Legend of the White Snake, lanterns and others grew rapidly. Online sales of tourism products such as intangible cultural heritage shows and folk fairs have gone through the roof during the Spring Festival holiday, increasing by 407.7% and 109.8% respectively. The key monitoring platforms show that orders for the Yingge Dance and fire pot shows have doubled.

Third, new supply driven by premium quality. Healthy organic products are popular. During the Spring Festival holiday, sales of fat reducers and stair steppers increased by 98.3% and 93.8%, while sales of organic condiments and organic milk grew by 81.5% and 44.4%. Health products become a new trend during the Spring Festival. Premium goods from around the world were well received. Guangxi, Shandong and Shanghai leveraged their geographical advantages to bring high-quality products from ASEAN and Central Asia to the Chinese market. Spending on Italian chocolate candies and Malaysian biscuits and cakes increased by 134.3% and 73.4% respectively.

Fourth, new experience driven by online shopping. Dine-in consumption at restaurants and eateries is robust. Online catering sales increased by 11.8% while the dine-in catering grew faster. According to the key monitoring platforms, New Year’s Eve dinner bookings increased by 35.4%. Online entertainment is booming. The Spring Festival film market hits records high, driving online spending on entertainment up by 55.5%.

That’s all for the announcement. The floor is open.

The floor is open.

21st Century Business Herald: We have noted that the Ministry of Commerce, China Media Group and the Beijing Municipal People's Government jointly held the launching ceremony of the 2025 Time-honored Brands Carnival on Wangfujing Pedestrian Street in Beijing on January 7. Since then, various special activities have been held in many places, especially during the Spring Festival holiday. Time-honored brands are quite popular among consumers. Could you give us more details?

He Yongqian: The time-honored brands have a long history and have been passed down from generation to generation. They embody the fine traditional Chinese culture and have become an important part of people’s daily life. The Ministry of Commerce is holding the "Time-honored Brands Carnival" for the sixth year, with the theme on “time-honored chic Chinese brands”. Since the launch of the campaign on January 7, different localities and e-commerce platforms have launched more than 100 activities for the Spring Festival consumption season to expand the supply of products and meet the needs of consumers. The main features are as follows:

First, rich activities on integrated Spring Festival goods platforms. The Ministry of Commerce promoted 10 time-honored brands Fairs, which registered sales of more than 500 million yuan, driving online and offline consumption of more than 1.6 billion yuan. In particular, the consumption at time-honored restaurants increased by 13.8% year-on-year. Different localities focused on the "must buy products" of time-honored brands to stimulate the consumption during the festival. Zhejiang held the Spring Festival consumption season, organizing more than 300 time-honored brands to put on exhibitions that registered sales of more than 50 million yuan and fueled a 12% increase in the turnover of business districts in the neighborhood. Hunan held "Time-honored Brands Carnival and Chinese chic Fair", realizing sales of nearly 30 million yuan, with intended deal of over 80 million yuan.

Second, online-offline integration and new consumption scenarios. Local governments worked with e-commerce platforms to create new consumption scenarios, such as interaction, VR, and livestreaming, bringing fresh image to the time-honored brands. Tianjin held the "Time-honored Brands University Tour", organizing time-honored brands in Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei to enter universities. They also built digital platforms to tell stories of the time-honored brands, which allowed teachers and students to feel the charm of time-honored brands through interactive experiences. The "Time-honored Brands Carnival" in Qinghai attracted 269,200 consumers during the Spring Festival Shopping Season. They launched special activities such as "time-honored shops visits" and live-stream activities, with related video clips played 1.89 million times.

Third, high-quality supply to meet diversified consumer needs. Local governments and e-commerce platforms take various measures to promote the product quality and service provision of time-honored brands. Guangdong held the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Time-honored Brands Carnival, which achieved sales of nearly 150 million yuan. It’s worth mentioning that themed activities such as "TCM Time-honored Brands Overseas Promotion" were warmly received by domestic and foreign tourists. Shanxi organized 11 cities to jointly promote time-honored brand products, and achieved sales of over 3 million yuan.

In the next step, the Ministry of Commerce will continue to advance the "Time-honored Brands Carnival", and encourage relevant authorities to continue to launch all kinds of exhibitions, display and experience activities, so that fine traditional Chinese culture can better integrate into people’s daily lives, and drive the consumption of Chinese chic products. Thank you.

RTHK: China has filed a complaint at the WTO over the US tariffs. What other policies will be implemented in the future?

He Yongqian: The unilateral tariff imposed by the US on February 1 violates WTO rules. China has resorted to the WTO dispute settlement mechanism on February 4. The case will be processed in accordance with WTO rules and procedures. Thank you.

Financial Times: On February 4, the Ministry of Commerce announced that PVH Group and Illumina,Inc. of the United States were added to the Unreliable Entities List. What follow-up measures will be taken and what will be the consequences?

He Yongqian : On February 4, the Unreliable Entities List working mechanism listed PVH Group and Illumina Company. According to Article 10 of the Regulations on the Unreliable Entities List, the working mechanism may decide to take one or more measures against listed foreign entities if need be.

As always, China’s approach to the issue of the Unreliable Entities List has been prudent. It lists only a small number of foreign entities that undermine market rules and violate Chinese laws. Foreign entities that are honest and law-abiding have nothing to worry about. The Chinese government, as always, welcomes foreign companies’ investment and operation in China, and is committed to providing a stable, fair and predictable business environment for law-abiding foreign companies in China. Thank you.

AFP: U.S. President Donald Trump signed an order this week to impose a 25% tariff on steel and aluminum imports. What is MOFCOM’s response to this?

He Yongqian: We noticed that the U.S. government announced adjustments to tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, reinstating Section 232 tariffs on trading partners and further increasing tariffs on aluminum products on the evening of February 10 in Eastern Time. The U.S. move is a typical manifestation of unilateralism and protectionism. Many countries have clearly expressed their opposition, and there are also strong oppositions within the U.S. In fact, a World Trade Organization panel ruled as early as 2022 that the U.S. Section 232 tariffs violated WTO rules. However, the U.S. has not only maintained its existing Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum, but has also further increased tariffs on aluminum products, seriously harming the rights and interests of other countries, seriously undermining the rules-based multilateral trading system, and causing an impact on the global supply chain. China urges the U.S. to discard its zero-sum mentality, correct its wrongdoings, return to the correct path of the multilateral trading system, and work with other countries to address respective concerns through consultations on an equal footing. Thank you.

Bloomberg: Leaders from all provinces and territories in Canada met with U.S. lawmakers in Washington on Wednesday. Their message included helping the U.S. compete with China. How does MOFCOM view this situation?

He Yongqian: Regarding the issue you mentioned, I do not have relevant information at hand. Thank you.