Chinascope – Page 732

Sinosteel’s Revenue Decline May Result in a Default

Beijing News published an article in which it reported that Sinosteel may not be able to meet its obligation to pay an amount due that totals tens of billions of yuan. According to the article, the liabilities to asset ratio for Sinosteel has remained between 90 and 95 percent since 2009. Prior to 2009, the business model for the State-owned steel companies involved importing ore and doubling or tripling the price when re-selling the ore to domestic downstream steel mills. In late 2009, these downstream steel mills were allowed to import ore, thus eliminating the high profit margin for large State-owned companies. Sinosteel’s revenue dropped from 180 billion yuan in 2010 to 140 billion yuan in 2013. Another reason for the financial loss is that it has failed in a series of investments overseas.

Sinosteel is under the China’s State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission. It has 86 subsidiaries, of which 63 are in China and 23 overseas. Their functions include developing and processing metallurgical mineral resources, trading and logistics of metallurgical raw materials and products, related engineering technical services, and equipment manufacture.

Source: The Beijing News, September 24, 2014

http://www.bjnews.com.cn/finance/2014/09/24/334968.html

Briefings | | September 26, 2014 | Economy/Resources

Huanqiu: U.S. Accuses Chinese Military of Hacking U.S. Military Contractors

Huanqiu (Global Times), a publication under the auspices of People’s Daily, published an article refuting a U.S. Senate report released on September 17. The report alleged that, 20 times within a period of one year, hackers associated with the Chinese military infiltrated the computer systems of the U.S. military’s private contractors for transportation services. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said that Chinese law prohibits hackers from conducting any destructive attacks. China urges the United States to stop its irresponsible attacks and accusations against China, stop its acts of large-scale, systematic network attacks against other countries, and do things that are helpful to maintaining peace and security in cyberspace.

Chinese military expert Li Jie told the reporter from Huanqiu that, in the current situation, the United States’ pace of returning to Asia is very slow. There is nothing much it can do right now. The reason that it frequently accuses China of hacking is to find an excuse to promote its agenda of advancing to the Asia-Pacific, to generate public opinion within the United States and the world to enable it to improve its defense capabilities, and to deploy a large number of weapons in China’s frontier regions. Li Jie believes that this is even a smoking gun of the United States to prepare for the next step, which is to attack China’s network. Emphasizing that Chinese military hackers are conducting such an invasion further revealed the U.S. intention of guarding against China’s military.

Source: Huanqiu, September 19, 2014

http://news.xinhuanet.com/mil/2014-09/19/c_127005057.htm

http://world.huanqiu.com/exclusive/2014-09/5142810.html

Briefings | | September 25, 2014 | US-China Relations

Ministry of Finance: State-owned Enterprises Have Liabilities to Asset Ratio of 65 Percent

On September 22, 2014, China’s Ministry of Finance released the economic performance report on State-owned enterprises for the period of January through August.

The report showed that, as of the end of August, the value of State-owned assets exceeded 99 trillion yuan, with total liabilities at nearly 65 trillion yuan; the ratio of liabilities to assets was 65 percent. The central government owned enterprises showed high financial expenditures. In the first eight months of the year, these grew by 22.4 percent.

The report also showed that, compared to the same period last year, the rate of growth of both the revenues and profits in these State-owned enterprises continued to decline. Costs, however, continued to increase faster than revenue.

Source: China Business News, September 23, 2014

http://www.yicai.com/news/2014/09/4021971.html

Briefings | | September 25, 2014 | Economy/Resources

Foreign Ministry Spokesperson on the Sino-Russian Military Alliance Issue

On September 17, Hong Lei, the spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry, was answering reporters’ questions. A news reporter asked, “Yesterday, a Russian congressman suggested that the Western’ sanctions against Russia will push Russia and China to establish a military alliance. What is China’s response?”

Hong replied, “The Sino-Russian comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership will not have an alliance, we will not confront each other, and we will not target third-parties. China will adhere to its strategic cooperative partnership position. [China will,] with Russia, continuously increase our strategic trust, promote mutually beneficial cooperation, and strengthen our cooperation on international and regional affairs.”

Hong also stated, “On the Ukraine issue, sanctions will not solve the problem. The issue will ultimately be handled through a political resolution.”

Source: Xinhua, September 17, 2014
http://news.xinhuanet.com/world/2014-09/17/c_1112522728.htm

Briefings | | September 24, 2014 | Geo-Strategic Trend

People’s Daily: Housing Prices Cooling Down

People’s Daily recently reported on the housing market data that the National Bureau of Statistics just released. According to the official statistics, out of seventy large and medium sized cities, sixty-eight saw a month-over-month housing price decline. One city broke even and another had an increase. The seventy-city average price for new real estate fell by 1.2 percent month-over-month, which is the biggest decline in ten years. Traditionally, September is the peak month of the year for the housing market. However there is no sign of recovery as of now. Market analysts thought that it was the high inventory level and a significantly lower demand that had caused the decline. Several provincial governments have come up with new local policies to “rescue” the housing market. It is widely expected that at least ten more provinces will follow suit.

Sources: People’s Daily, September 19, 2014

http://finance.people.com.cn/n/2014/0919/c1004-25690606.html

National Bureau of Statistics, September 18, 2014

http://www.stats.gov.cn/Tjsj/zxfb/201409/t20140918_611639.html

Briefings | | September 23, 2014 | Economy/Resources

Ministry of Commerce: Foreign Direct Investments Fell by Fourteen Percent

Well-known Chinese news site Sina recently reported that the Ministry of Commerce briefed the media in a press conference on the state of the economy as of August. According to the Ministry, the August number for Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) was US$7.2 billion, which represents a year-over-year decline of 14 percent. Another focal point was, for the first eight months of 2014, total actual foreign investments in the manufacturing industry declined by 15.7 percent year-over-year, down to US$27.5 billion. The top ten foreign investment sources were Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Korea, Japan, the U.S., Germany, the UK, France and the Netherlands. Noticeably, investments from Japan, the U.S. and the EU suffered declines of 43.3 percent, 16.9 percent and 17.9 percent, respectively.

Source: Sina, September 16, 2014

http://finance.sina.com.cn/china/hgjj/20140916/100520304349.shtml

Briefings | | September 23, 2014 | Economy/Resources

BBC Chinese: HK Poll Showed Half of the People Do not Support Political Reform Proposal

BBC Chinese recently reported that the South China Morning Post conducted a scientific poll on the recent government-proposed reform of the political system that determines how the Chief Executive of Hong Kong will be elected. The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress approved the proposed reform. However the Hong Kong Legislative Council has to pass the proposal before it can become law. According to the results of the poll, 48 percent of the sample thought that the Legislative Council should veto the proposal. Thirty-nine percent said it should pass. Thirteen percent of the people surveyed were unsure. Among all of the people who responded to the poll, 70 percent of those between 18 and 29 years old favored a veto; 50 percent of those between 30 and 49 years old supported a veto; 37 percent of those who are 50 or older supported a veto. The proposed reform includes a “filtering mechanism” to limit the candidacy.

[Editor’s note: Beijing has rejected open nominations in favor of having a nominating committee select who can run.]

Source: BBC Chinese, September 15, 2014

http://www.bbc.co.uk/zhongwen/trad/china/2014/09/140915_hongkong_democracy.shtml

Briefings | | September 23, 2014 | Geo-Strategic Trend

Wu Guoguang: Xi Jinping’s Reversal of the Course, Will China’s Transition be Peaceful or Marked with Bloodshed?

Cheng Xiaonong: U.S.-China Strategic Relations Have Crystallized

Xinhua Commentaries: “Exposing the Three Major Political Deficits of the U.S.”

The CCP’s Performing Arts Troupes in the U.S.