Photo: CCTV
Multiple Chinese government departments pledged over the weekend to strengthen clampdown on illegal activities and provide more high-quality products to the market, after state broadcast CCTV's annual "3.15" Consumer Rights Gala exposed various business misconduct, including food safety breaches and AI harassment calls.
The State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR), China's top market regulator, said on Saturday that market regulatory authorities have launched enforcement actions targeting illegal business activities exposed by the"3.15" Gala, including seafood producers found to have used excessive phosphate-based water-retention agents — a practice strictly regulated under Chinese law — in shrimp processing, as well as the sale of wires and cables that fail to meet national standards.
Authorities are "taking strict legal measures with zero tolerance and the investigation results will be promptly disclosed to the public," the SAMR said. The "3.15" Consumer Rights Gala, held on Saturday night, was themed "promoting credibility to boost consumption."
SAMR has developed a "National Food Safety Reporting System" which will be launched in May, the Xinhua News Agency reported on Saturday. The SAMR said on Saturday that it has formulated the national food safety sampling plan for 2025.
Under the plan, with intensified sampling inspection, any detected food safety issues will be dealt with strictly in accordance with the law. The plan will focus on key issues such as excessive pesticide and veterinary drug residue, the overuse and illegal use of food additives, and the misuse of fruit and vegetable preservatives, while also targeting emerging business models like livestreaming e-commerce and food delivery services.
In response to misconduct in the telecom sector exposed by the "3.15" Gala such as AI harassment calls, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) organized local communication administrations in Beijing, Shanghai and South China's Guangdong Province overnight to investigate and address violations, according to a post on the MIIT's WeChat account on Sunday.
The ministry ordered telecom operators to immediately shut down the involved lines and conduct thorough checks on matters related to personal data, and it urged internet platforms to comprehensively remove illegal promotional information involving smart calling software, the MIIT said, while vowing to "make every effort to create a safe and healthy consumption environment for information and communication."
Analysts said that the swift enforcement actions showed that the policymakers are putting strong emphasis on protecting Chinese consumers' rights and shoring up their confidence.
"It is important that authorities are following up on the revealed issues with more concrete measures to not only crack down on malpractice and establish a traceable accountability system, but also to create a benign consumption environment and expand the supply of high-quality products to the market," Tian Yun, an economist based in Beijing, told the Global Times on Sunday.
He added that those moves are consequential to shoring up market demand and boosting consumption, especially at a time when China's middle-income group is expanding rapidly and domestic consumption is undergoing a critical period of upgrading, with the quality of consumer goods mattering more than the quantity.
According to the 2025 Government Work Report, China will launch special initiatives to boost consumption as one of the major tasks for 2025. The country will adopt special measures to increase spending power, boost the supply of quality products and services, and improve the consumption environment in order to tap the potential of diversified, differentiated spending and promote the consumption upgrading.
Chinese policymakers have stepped up consumption policy support this year, including the allocation of ultra-long special treasury bonds of 300 billion yuan ($42 billion) to support consumer goods trade-in programs as well as the expansion of the scope of consumer products eligible for trade-in subsidy programs.
As of Friday, approximately 1.3 million applications for the 2025 vehicle trade-in subsidy had been received nationwide, China Central Television reported on Sunday, citing data from the China Consumers Association. More than 19 million consumers have purchased more than 25 million trade-in products across 12 major categories of home appliances, and more than 39 million consumers have applied for subsidies on more than 49 million new digital products, including mobile phones.
Industry observers suggested that to shore up the consumption momentum, the authorities should further improve the network for consumer rights protection this year, such as establishing more smooth communication channel with consumers and strengthening the handling of consumer complaints.
Also, new technologies such as AI and big data could be employed to build a smart, forward-looking supervision system that aims to "resolve issues before complaints arise, the experts said.
