China’s Central Bank is Pushing to Promote Green Finance
The latest symposium on the optimization and adjustment of the credit structure of major banks across China is now emphasizing the establishment of carbon emission reduction support tools to achieve strategic goals. Chief among them is curbing carbon emissions peaking and carbon neutrality. To fulfill this plan, the central bank has decided to guide commercial banks to increase their investment and finance activities in carbon emission reduction in accordance with market principles.
For example, the People’s Bank of China has identified green finance as a key task for this year and the entire “14th Five-Year Plan” period. To this end, China’s financial sector will thoroughly establish and improve the green finance standard system and strengthen information for reporting and disclosure. The reason for this policy line stems from the arduous challenges arising from the fulfillment of national policy of carbon neutrality. And it is necessary to guide the financial system to provide the required monetary support in a market-oriented manner.
In Lanzhou, A Mafia-Style Group Running Illegal Online Lending Services Cracked Down
Recently, a “plot usury” case of Lanzhou, a city in northwestern China, has been intensely reported about. It has aroused widespread concerns across the PRC. Both Wang Tao and Wu Huabiao are founders of the online lending company and the criminal organizations surrounding them. They have been identified as mafia-style group.
From April 2018 to March 2019, Wang Tao,Wu Huabiao and others signed more than 360,000 loan contracts with 475,000 people through 21 online lending App platforms under their control, with a contract value of more than 8.96 billion yuan. Among the lenders, more than 390,000 people encountered “soft violence” of debt collection.
“ Plot usury ” is also called the “death loan”. Because online finance and other internet finance companies are based cross-regional and cross-industry, victims are spread all over the country. This brings about difficulties to traditional financial supervision. These companies will frequently send harassing SMS messages to the borrowers and at same time use other “soft violence” methods to force debtors to repay the loan— this is what eventually leading to 89 suicide cases.
Suicide Bombing Case Reveals Tears Inside A Guangdong Village
On March 22, 2021, a farmer named Hu Shanzhang detonated a homemade bomb hidden in his backpack at the Mingjing Village Committee in Guangzhou. The explosion killed 5 people including the bomber, with 11 others injured.
In recent years, with the continuous advancement of urbanization, the village area has gradually been surrounded by large and small industrial parks and factories. With agricultural land of Mingjing Village gradually expropriated and converted to industrial land, a series of dissatisfactions surrounding the land aroused conflicts within the village. This has lasted for several years. Some locals said that prior to explosion, there had been violent confrontations inside the village itself. After the bombing, some villagers even regarded Hu Shanzhang as a “hero”, but at the same time they also felt regret that, “innocent people were injured.” This ambivalence reflects the internal tears in a village due to benefit distribution issues.
New Forces for Car Making See Opportunities Along With Challenges
Starting from the second half of 2020, the new energy automobile industry, which previously drew little attention from investors, has been attracting waves of financing. In 2020, there were 89 investment and financing projects in the field of new energy vehicles, with an amount of nearly RMB 129.21 billion. This is the first time that this industry’s investment has exceeded 100 billion yuan during the course of the past ten years.
In 2021, this enthusiasm continues. For example, there have been 13 investment and financing incidents involving many new energy vehicle brands. Some members of the new forces of car making that originally had trouble attaining investment, have now been pulled back from the brink of imminent closure. The next step is, of course, to go public. Investors are waiting for returns. However, in 2021, the trend on the STAR market will take a change, and the listing review policy will become stricter. And the story of new forces for defining the automobile industry is just starting to rev up.
