Here are the key reports and articles that I found noteworthy from the People’s Daily’s edition on Thursday, August 14, 2025.
Page 1: The lead piece on the page is a long feature article on how the “two mountains” concept proposed by Xi Jinping during his time in Zhejiang guides the development of a Beautiful China. If you read yesterday’s edition, I had covered this in a report. The concept refers to “lucid waters and lush mountains” being “invaluable assets.”
There’s another long article on the economy. This is part of the series of articles talking up China’s development in the first half of the year. Some key excerpts:
In the first half of this year, the added value of high-tech manufacturing industries above a certain scale increased by 9.5% year-on-year, and the output of 3D printing equipment, new energy vehicles, and industrial robots increased by 43.1%, 36.2%, and 35.6% year-on-year, respectively … The trend of accelerated development of new quality productive forces has become more prominent.
In the first half of the year, domestic demand contributed 68.8% to GDP growth, of which final consumption expenditure contributed 52%.
“Economically significant provinces are the ‘ballast stones’ for stabilising the economy, and also the ‘locomotives’ driving growth. Giving play to the role of economically significant provinces in shouldering the main beam, development will have a stronger and more sustainable foundation. In the first half of the year, the total import and export value of Guangdong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai, and Shandong accounted for 64.1% of the national total import and export value, an increase of 4.8% year-on-year, higher than the national overall growth rate by 1.9 percentage points, pulling overall import and export growth up by 3 percentage points. In the Yangtze River Delta’s three provinces and one municipality, new consumption models, new business formats, and new scenarios have continued to emerge, effectively stimulating development vitality. In the first half of the year, the major economic provinces shouldered heavy responsibilities and strode forward in the lead; in the second half of the year, they must continue to play the vanguard and strive to be the first and foremost. Guangdong has proposed to persist in having consumption, investment, and exports, i.e., the ‘three driving forces’, work together, focusing efforts on boosting consumption and persisting in investing in people; Jiangsu will accelerate the cultivation and development of new quality productive forces in promoting the construction of a large unified large market, striving to seize the initiative in global industrial competition and innovation-driven development; Sichuan will intensify efforts in comprehensively expanding domestic demand and do more work in promoting industrial development…Both adding luster to their respective regions and adding brilliance to the overall situation, economic major provinces take on responsibilities and actively provide high-quality development samples for the whole country. 经济大省是稳经济的“压舱石”，也是拉动增长的“火车头”。发挥经济大省挑大梁作用，发展就拥有更能吃住劲的支撑力。上半年，广东、江苏、浙江、上海、山东进出口值合计占全国进出口总值的64.1%，同比增长4.8%，高出全国整体增速1.9个百分点，拉动进出口整体增长3个百分点。长三角三省一市新型消费模式、新业态、新场景持续涌现，有效激发了发展活力。上半年，经济大省挑起大梁、阔步在前；下半年，要继续打好头阵、奋勇争先。广东提出坚持消费、投资、出口“三驾马车”共同发力，聚力提振消费，坚持投资于人；江苏将在推进统一大市场建设中加快培育发展新质生产力，努力在全球产业竞争、创新驱动发展中抢占先机；四川要在全方位扩大内需上加力加劲，在推动产业发展上多做文章……既为一域增光、更为全局添彩，经济大省担当作为，积极为全国提供高质量发展样本.
By the end of April, all new local government bond quotas had been allocated to local governments; by the end of June, over 90% of central budgetary investment had been allocated; this year’s third batch of 69 billion yuan in ultra-long-term special treasury bonds to support the goods trade-in programme have been fully disbursed, with the fourth batch set to follow in October…Fiscal funds are being allocated quickly, accurately, and steadily, racing against time to overcome various uncertainties, using policy effectiveness to offset adverse impacts and seize the initiative in development. 4月底，新增地方政府债券额度全部下达地方；6月底，中央预算内投资下达超过90%；今年第三批690亿元支持消费品以旧换新的超长期特别国债资金已下达完毕，第四批资金将于10月接续发力……财政资金落快、落准、落稳，与各种不确定性抢时间，用政策效能对冲不利影响、赢得发展主动。
As of the first half of this year, the goods trade-in programme has driven sales of 2.9 trillion yuan, with approximately 400 million people benefiting from the subsidy. 以旧换新政策持续发力，范围有所扩大，涉及产品越来越多，截至今年上半年，以旧换新带动销售额2.9万亿元，约4亿人次享受补贴优惠；
Construction has officially begun on the lower Yarlung Zangbo River hydropower project. 雅鲁藏布江下游水电工程正式开工.
Next, there’s a report informing that total foreign trade in July was 3.91 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 6.7%. This is 1.5 percentage points faster than in June and a new high for the year. Exports were 2.31 trillion yuan, up 8% year-on-year, while imports were 1.6 trillion yuan, up 4.8% year-on-year. In the first seven months of this year, China’s total import and export value of goods reached 25.7 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 3.5%.
The trade data in RMB value is available.
Trade with ASEAN reached 4.29 trillion yuan, up 9.4%, accounting for 16.7% of China’s total foreign trade. Exports were up 14.8% and imports grew by 1.3%.
Trade with the EU reached 3.35 trillion yuan, up 3.9%, accounting for 13% of China’s total foreign trade. Exports were up 8.2%, while imports collapsed 4.2%.
Trade with the US fell 11.1%.
Total trade with BRI countries reached 13.29 trillion yuan, up 5.5%.
With India, total trade was up 11.7%, with exports rising 14.7% and imports falling 6.1%.
Trade with Russia tumbled 7.1%, with exports down 7.5% and imports down 6.7%
Trade with Australia has also been weak, falling 8.6%, although Chinese exports have grown 3.5%. Imports have fallen 14.2%.
Page 2: There’s a report informing that so far, 188 billion yuan in investment subsidies for equipment upgrades earmarked via the 2025 ultra-long-term special government bonds have been allocated. These subsidies are supporting approximately 8,400 projects in sectors such as industry, energy-consuming equipment, energy and power, transportation, logistics, environmental infrastructure, education, cultural tourism, healthcare, outdated residential elevators, electronics and information technology, facility agriculture, grain and oil processing, production safety, and recycling, generating a total investment exceeding 1 trillion yuan. 近期，2025年超长期特别国债支持设备更新的1880亿元投资补助资金已下达完毕，支持工业、用能设备、能源电力、交通运输、物流、环境基础设施、教育、文旅、医疗、住宅老旧电梯、电子信息、设施农业、粮油加工、安全生产、回收循环利用等领域约8400个项目，带动总投资超过1万亿元.
Do recall that at the NPC, we were informed that a total of 1.3 trillion yuan in ultra long-term treasury bonds would be issued this year. 200 billion yuan of this was earmarked for equipment upgrades.
Page 3: There’s a report informing that Wang Yi will chair the 10th Lancang-Mekong Cooperation Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Anning, Yunnan from August 14 to 15.
Page 4: There’s a report (English report) informing that State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters on Wednesday upgraded the flood and typhoon emergency response to Level III in the provinces of Guangdong and Fujian, anticipating the impacts of Typhoon Podul. According to meteorological forecasts, Podul -- the 11th named storm of the 2025 Pacific typhoon season -- is likely to bring rainstorms and heavy downpours to parts of Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangxi and Hunan from Wednesday to Thursday.
Page 11: Data from PBOC says that from January to July, RMB loans increased by 12.87 trillion yuan. As of the end of July, the balance of domestic and foreign currency loans reached 272.48 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 6.7%. The balance of RMB loans reached 268.51 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 6.9%.
The balance of inclusive small and micro loans reached 35.05 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 11.8%
The balance of medium- and long-term loans to the manufacturing industry reached 14.79 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 8.5%
Interest rates remained low in July, with the interest rate for new corporate loans at approximately 3.2% and the interest rate for new personal housing loans at approximately 3.1%, down approximately 45 and 30 basis points, respectively, from the same period last year
As of July, the total social financing scale increased by 23.99 trillion yuan, 5.12 trillion yuan more than the same period last year. Of this, RMB loans to the real economy increased by 12.31 trillion yuan
As of July, China’s total social financing scale reached 431.26 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 9%. Of this, the balance of RMB loans to the real economy was 264.79 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 6.8%
Broad money supply (M2) reached 329.94 trillion yuan at the end of July, up 8.8 percent year-on-year. Narrow money (M1) rose 5.6 percent to 111.06 trillion yuan, while currency in circulation (M0) climbed 11.8 percent to 13.28 trillion yuan