Regarding Walmart, the Ministry of Commerce responded.

On March 13, He Yingqian, spokesperson of the Ministry of Commerce, stated at the Ministry of Commerce's regular press conference that the Ministry of Commerce has taken note of media reports and has received feedback from some enterprises. In response, the relevant departments of the Ministry of Commerce have reached out to Wal-Mart to understand the situation, and the company has provided an explanation.

Regarding the free trade zones, He Yingqian said that the Ministry of Commerce will better utilize the pilot role of the free trade zones, actively promote the opening pilot projects in relevant fields, deepen the integration with international high-standard trade and investment rules, and carry out more extensive, deeper and larger-scale institutional opening experiments to create a transparent, stable and predictable institutional environment for all business entities, including foreign enterprises.

He Yingqian introduced that the free trade zones are important platforms for the Chinese government to independently promote high-level opening. In 2024, the actual use of foreign investment in the 22 free trade zones reached US$28.25 billion, accounting for 24.3% of the country's total, up from the previous year, and played a significant driving role in attracting foreign investment.

He Yingqian said that on March 17, the Ministry of Commerce will launch the 2025 "Chinese Food Festival" with the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the Administration for Industry and Commerce, the National Radio and Television Administration, the General Administration of Sports and the People's Government of Hubei in Wuhan, Hubei.

He Yingqian said that the event will enhance the vitality of catering consumption by combining online and offline. It will promote banks and payment settlement institutions to work with Internet e-commerce platforms to launch more preferential and convenient "catering + movies" and "catering + events" packages, release consumption potential, and innovate to create immersive and experiential catering consumption scenarios. It will guide localities to expand the creative dishes, seasonal dishes, elderly meals, health meals, children's meals and cultural-themed catering in the subdivided tracks, launch a batch of innovative dishes, special theme banquets and catering flagship stores, and increase high-quality service supply.

"Catering is an important field for promoting consumption and also plays an important role in stabilizing economic growth and benefiting the people." He Yingqian said.