China Expands Registration-Based IPO System across A-Share Market
Around China’s traditional Spring Festival, a large number of foreign capital entered the A-share market. The reason why foreign capital invests heavily in the Chinese stock market is that the country’s assets have become a cost-effective choice for global asset allocation. Worries about the world economic recession and high expectations for China’s economic recovery have become the main drivers of overseas capital inflows into the Chinese market.
Economic recovery will not happen overnight, it needs to go through a long process. During this period, domestic and foreign investment institutions are also looking for suitable investment opportunities. At the same time, an important step has been taken in the reform of China’s capital market, namely the registration-based IPO system of China being officially expanded. On February 1, the China Securities Regulatory Commission published draft rules for the full implementation of the stock issuance registration system. After more than four years of pilot run, China’s capital market reform has taken a major step to move from an approval system to a comprehensive registration-based system.
China Targets Consumption in Bid to Revive Growth
The gratifying consumption statistics during the Spring Festival holiday show that China’s consumer market in 2023 ushered in a long-expected recovery. During the first Spring Festival after three years of zero-Covid policies, the offline consumer service industry, which was hit hard by the pandemic, rebounded strongly. According to the Ministry of Commerce, during the Spring Festival, the sales of key retail and catering enterprises across the country increased by 6.8% compared with the same period last year. In the tourism market, the number of domestic tourists has rebounded to nearly 90% of that in 2019.
Although there are strong signs of recovery in the consumer market, a full recovery cannot be achieved overnight. Demand in the consumer industry has grown significantly in the short term, but it will take longer to restore people’s confidence. In terms of policy, the Chinese market may need more targeted favorable policies to stimulate private consumption.
Yi Zhenwu Walks Free after Exposing a Corrupt Judge
The notorious “secret filming of a judge playing mahjong” case came to an end. Yi Zhenwu was acquitted after more than 1,300 days in custody.
In 2016, Yi Zhenwu secretly took a video of a judge playing mahjong. The judge and her ex-husband have a debt dispute with Yi. In 2018, Yi Zhenwu threatened the judge that he would release the video to the public unless they agree to settle the payment disputes. In April 2019, Yi Zhenwu’s suspected extortion case was tried in Chongqing, which aroused public attention to the judge and others appearing in the video. Subsequently, judge Zhang Jiahui and Liu Yuansheng in the video were deeply involved in rumors of possessing huge assets and were later sentenced to imprisonment. After more than four years, Yi Zhenwu’s case has ushered in a turning point.
Why Hebei is Repeatedly Battling Gas Shortages?
In 2017, China implemented coal-to-gas heating conversion project on a large scale in its northern regions, but in the following several cold winters, the entire North China region was hit by a gas shortage. In the winter of 2022, there was another large-scale gas shortage in Hebei, which caused rural residents in many cities that have implemented coal-to-gas conversion project to have difficulty keeping warm. In 2023, after the gas shortage has attracted widespread attention, local governments have stepped up efforts to guarantee gas supply.
The reason for the gas shortage in 2017 was the hasty implementation of coal-to-gas conversion project and the insufficient supply of imported natural gas. In other words, it was caused by the overall imbalance between supply and demand of gas. In the winter of 2022, the supply was not in short. The real problem was lack of supply of gas sources at an affordable price. Unless the natural gas pricing mechanism is improved as soon as possible, the gas shortage will hit Hebei again.
