• The 2026 Spring Festival travel season commences on February 2, with cross-regional passenger flows across society expected to reach a record high of 9.5 billion trips. The State Taxation Administration has released new export tax rebate management measures, making the declaration and processing of export rebates more convenient and efficient. The tax threshold for individual occasional taxpayers has been raised to 1,000 yuan, with the Administration clarifying value-added tax collection and administration matters.
• The 2026 Spring Festival travel rush begins on February 2 and concludes on March 13, spanning a total of 40 days. This intensive and emotionally charged travel season is fast approaching. Coinciding with an extended 9-day Lunar New Year holiday, the period will see a confluence of demand for returning home for family reunions and holiday travel. It is projected that cross-regional passenger flows across society will hit a historic peak of 9.5 billion trips during this travel rush.
• The State Taxation Administration recently issued an announcement to correspondingly adjust and refine the management regulations for export tax rebates, aiming to make the declaration and processing of these rebates more convenient and efficient. An official from the Administration's Goods and Services Tax Department explained that to ensure the smooth implementation and precise execution of the new policy, the announcement has made partial optimizations to the management requirements for export tax rebate procedures based on policy updates. For the vast majority of enterprises, the implementation of this announcement will not significantly alter their existing declaration habits, allowing for a largely seamless transition when handling most export tax rebate and exemption businesses.
• The State Taxation Administration has formulated and issued the "Announcement on Value-Added Tax Collection and Administration Matters Including Threshold Standards," which provides further clarification on VAT administration issues such as the determination of threshold standards and the application of preferential tax policies. The announcement refines operational requirements to facilitate the implementation of the VAT Law and its implementing regulations. This administrative announcement further adjusts and optimizes the detailed rules for determining the VAT threshold standard for natural persons. Starting this year, the threshold for occasional taxpayers has been raised from 500 yuan per transaction (or per day) to 1,000 yuan. It also specifies that natural persons involved in six specific scenarios, including leasing immovable property and selling scrapped products through "reverse invoicing," will no longer be subject to the 1,000 yuan occasional taxpayer threshold. Instead, they will directly reference the periodic taxpayer threshold of 100,000 yuan in monthly sales.
• Data released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on February 1 shows that in 2025, China's three major shipbuilding indicators maintained the top global market share for the 16th consecutive year. The data indicates that China's shipbuilding completion volume reached 53.69 million deadweight tons in 2025, a year-on-year increase of 11.4%, accounting for 56.1% of the world's total. New orders received amounted to 107.82 million deadweight tons, capturing 69.0% of the global market share. As of the end of December 2025, the order book stood at 274.42 million deadweight tons, a significant increase of 31.5% year-on-year, representing 66.8% of the world's total.
• According to online platform data, as of 15:26 on February 1, the annual box office revenue for 2026 had already exceeded 2 billion yuan. With the Spring Festival approaching, the movie market is heating up. So far, six domestic films have announced their release dates for the 2026 Spring Festival holiday season: "Pegasus 3," "Awakening Silence," "Biao Ren: Wind Rises in the Desert," "Boonie Bears: Always There," "Dreaming of the Milky Way," and "Panda Plan: Tribal Adventure."
• China Mobile, China Unicom, and China Telecom all issued announcements on the evening of February 1 regarding adjustments to the applicable scope of VAT categories for telecommunications services. The relevant announcements indicated that recently, the Ministry of Finance and the State Taxation Administration released the "Announcement on Specific Matters Concerning the Scope of VAT Levying," which stipulates that starting January 1, 2026, within China, business activities utilizing fixed networks, mobile networks, satellites, and the internet to provide mobile data services, SMS and MMS services, and internet broadband access services will have their applicable tax category adjusted from value-added telecommunications services to basic telecommunications services. The corresponding VAT rate will be adjusted from 6% to 9%.
• On the evening of February 1, multiple LOF products, including SDIC Silver LOF, GF Oil LOF, Huaan Oil Fund LOF, and Manulife Bond LOF, collectively announced that the funds would be suspended from trading for one hour after the market opens on February 2, resuming at 10:30. The announcements stated that if the premium rate in the secondary market trading price does not effectively decrease by February 2, the funds have the right to apply for measures such as intraday temporary trading halts or extended suspension periods to warn the market of risks.
• On January 30, international gold prices recorded their largest single-day decline in 40 years. Several interviewed experts expressed that current gold prices are at high levels, volatility has intensified, and risks have consequently increased, necessiting greater caution from investors.
• The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) issued a statement on February 1, stating that eight major oil-producing countries from OPEC and non-OPEC nations have decided to maintain the production plan formulated in early November 2025 and will continue to pause output increases in March 2026.
• U.S. President Donald Trump said on January 31 that relations between the leadership of the United States and Venezuela are very good, and the two sides will "share" oil revenues.
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated in a social media post on February 1 that Ukraine, the United States, and Russia plan to hold a second round of trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi, UAE, on February 4. Zelenskyy said that Ukraine is ready for "substantive consultations" and looks forward to the talks achieving results that could promote an early "real and dignified end" to the war.
• Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on February 1 that if the United States provokes a war, it will trigger a "comprehensive regional war." He stated that in the face of any aggression and provocation, the Iranian people will definitely respond resolutely.
• U.S. President Donald Trump claimed on January 31 that negotiations regarding Greenland have begun and he believes an agreement is imminent.
• KLM Royal Dutch Airlines announced on the evening of January 31 that, after assessing the current security situation and operational feasibility, it will resume flights to several countries in the Middle East. In a statement, KLM said it will resume flights to Tel Aviv, Israel, starting February 2, and to Dubai, UAE, starting February 1. The airline had previously resumed flights to Riyadh and Dammam in Saudi Arabia.
• As of January 31, the EUR/USD exchange rate was 1.19, fluctuating near high levels. It had briefly surpassed 1.20 on January 27, reaching its highest level since June 2021. Over the past year, the euro has appreciated by approximately 14.4% cumulatively, which market analysts attribute primarily to uncertainty surrounding U.S. economic policy and investor risk aversion. Several European Central Bank policymakers have expressed concern about the rapid appreciation of the euro. Against a backdrop of already low inflation, a stronger euro further increases cost pressures for export-oriented companies and could potentially dampen the pace of economic recovery.
• On January 30, SpaceX submitted an application to the U.S. Federal Communications Commission proposing to deploy a system of up to 1 million satellites in low Earth orbit. This initiative aims to build an in-orbit data center network to support high-performance computing demands, including those for artificial intelligence (AI).
• According to Israeli media reports on February 1, the Rafah crossing in the southern Gaza Strip began a one-day "pilot opening" that day, with the crossing scheduled to officially reopen on February 2.
• Hazem Qassem, a spokesman for the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), issued a statement on February 1, stating that any obstacles or附加 conditions set by Israel regarding the opening of the Rafah crossing would violate the Gaza ceasefire agreement.
• According to U.S. media reports, as of January 31, the winter storm that recently swept across most of the United States, coupled with days of severe cold weather, has resulted in over 100 deaths nationwide. The southeastern United States was hit by another winter storm on that day.
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