China urges firms to eliminate political pressure, make independent decisions: spokeswoman

China

China urges firms to eliminate political pressure, make independent decisions: spokeswoman

2024-11-29 22:27 Last Updated At：23:07

China urges companies to make independent, interest-aligned business decisions free from external political interference, said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning at a regular press conference in Beijing on Friday.

Mao's comments came in response to a BBC report on Thursday in which Tadashi Yanai, CEO of Fast Retailing - the parent company of the global clothing brand Uniqlo - stated that the company does not source cotton from China's Xinjiang region.

"Cotton from the Xinjiang region is among the best in the world. We hope relevant company will overcome political pressure and malign disruption, and independently make business decisions that serve its own interests," Mao said.

Speaking to the BBC in Tokyo, Yanai explained the company's focus on greater transparency regarding the sourcing and manufacturing of its materials, stating that Uniqlo does not use Xinjiang cotton.

However, in a recent interview with Nikkei Asia, Yanai reiterated that production in China remains crucial for the company.

Figures show that as of Oct 31, Uniqlo has 927 stores on the Chinese mainland, more than a third of its total of over 2,500 stores worldwide. Among these, nearly 20 new stores opened in September and October this year - including its first store in Sanya, a tourist city in China's southernmost island province of Hainan.

In the 2024 fiscal year, Uniqlo's sales revenue in Greater China reached a whopping 677 billion yen (about 4.38 billion U.S. dollars), up 9.2 percent year on year, according to Fast Retailing, Uniqlo's parent company.

China's inventory of valid invention patents reaches 4.66 mln

2024-11-29 22:25 Last Updated At：22:57

China's inventory of valid invention patents soared to 4.66 million by the end of October this year, according to the National Intellectual Property Administration on Friday.

China is the first country in the world to have more than 4 million valid domestic invention patents. A spokesman for the NIPA said at a press conference in Beijing that China has been comprehensively promoting the transformation and application of intellectual property. For the first time ever, it compiled an inventory of more than 1.3 million patents in universities and research institutions across the country, forming a transformable patent resource library.

"We have vigorously developed patent-intensive industries. The added value of patent-intensive industries reached 15.32 trillion yuan (about 2.12 trillion U.S. dollars), a year-on-year increase of 7.1 percent, accounting for 12.7 percent of GDP," said Heng Fuguang, the NIPA spokesman.

In the first three quarters of this year, the number of patent transfer licenses in universities and research institutions across the country exceeded 38,000, a year-on-year increase of 24.1 percent.

The total amount of patent and trademark pledge financing registration surpassed 792 billion yuan (about 109 billion U.S. dollars), up 60 percent year on year, while the total import and export of intellectual property royalties reached more than 307 billion yuan (about 42 billion U.S. dollars), a year-on-year increase of 7.2 percent.

All of these figures set a historical record.