The pandemic brought the world economy to an unparalleled halt in 2020. As the first country to report the outbreak, China was also the first to feel its impact, experiencing a major economic recession as early as the first half of 2020.

Last year, China's announced mergers and acquisitions ended up being almost a third lower than in 2019. This rapid slowdown seemed even worse than the global trend of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) which fell only 10% in 2020, according to the Investment Trends Index of UNCTAD (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development).

China has become the first country in the world to issue covid-19 certificates for domestic travelers, the so-called virus passports, which reflect whether a person has been vaccinated or has tested negative for coronavirus, as reported by the agency on Tuesday. AFP news.

The digital certificate is available exclusively to Chinese citizens through a program on the Chinese social network WeChat that was launched on Monday.

Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency, a payment system that allows no one to control operations. Now, a competitor has emerged, since the Government of China is preparing the eYuan, another cryptocurrency that, far from promoting commercial freedom, is controlled by the Central Bank.

The authorities have distributed to citizens packages of this new virtual currency, which can be downloaded to devices as a virtual wallet, which is in constant contact with the Central Bank of China. As reported by the Financial Times, this could make China a leader in the adoption of this digital payment system, with which the authorities will be able to see all the transactions of citizens at the moment.

The first deputy mayor of Barcelona, ​​Jaume Collboni, has called for Chinese investment to accelerate the economic recovery and has encouraged the ten main Chinese companies based in the city to "strengthen their commitment" to it.

It has done so in a telematic meeting, organized by the City Council and Casa Asia, which has had municipal representatives and those of the ten main Chinese companies with commercial activities and interests in Barcelona, ​​the consistory reported in a statement.

2020 has not been a lost year for everyone. While most of the world's economies face new stoppages, recessions and layoffs in the face of the coronavirus roll, China announced yesterday that its gross domestic product grew by 2.3% in that fateful year. This is the lowest figure since the contraction recorded after the end of the Cultural Revolution (1976), but it allows the Asian giant to close the year as the only major world economy to expand during the pandemic.

The profits of China's leading industrial companies rose 2.4% in the first eleven months of the year, the National Statistical Office (ONE) reported today.

Earnings between January and November reached 57.4 trillion yuan (7.1 trillion euros, 8.7 trillion dollars), indicated the ONE.

The agreement between the 10 countries of ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations), and the Tripod constituted by China, the second largest economy in the world (US $ 14.1 trillion / 15% of global GDP), Japan, the third largest economy in the world system (US $ 4.9 trillion), and South Korea, the sixth largest productive system on the planet (US $ 1.6 trillion), to which Australia and New Zealand must be added, has become the largest free trade area of the XXI century, above the European Union (EU) and the New NAFTA / USMCA (USA / Canada and Mexico).

After years of strong sales growth and "cake for all", the Chinese market has to regulate itself, either with the invisible hand or with that of the politicians. In this process, manufacturers who, without the support of protectionism, are not competitive will disappear.

It's the economy, stupid. With that popular phrase dating from 1992, the future that holds for some Chinese car manufacturers that have benefited from 30 years of protectionist policies, but who in a competitive market do not have much future, can be summed up in one line.