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We provide translation of news in English from local media and other sources, for academic use.
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#Evergrande and other Chinese property giants have sizeable off-balance sheet debt: #JPMorgan

//Investment bank JPMorgan has estimated that troubled Chinese property giant Evergrande and many of its major rivals have billions of dollars worth of off-balance sheet debt that, once added on, ramp up their leverage ratios.

"Instead of true deleveraging, we think Evergrande has shifted some of the interest-bearing debt to off-balance sheet debt," JPMorgan's analysts said. "Commercial papers, wealth management products and perpetual capital securities, etc, which are not officially counted as debt."

They estimated Evergrande's "net gearing," as debt as a ratio of a firm's equity is known, was at least 177% at the end of the first half of the year, instead of the 100% its accounts reported.

"It is possible that the real gearing could be even higher, as data on some off-balance sheet debt is not publicly available," JPMorgan added, saying the "disguised" debt as it called it added up to 55% of Evergrande's overall debt.

Other major firms whose gearing levels were likely to be higher than formally reported included R&F Properties (2777.HK) at 139% versus the 123%, #SunacChina Holdings (1918.HK) at 138% versus 87% reported and #CountryGarden (2007.HK) at 76% versus 50% reported.//

Source: Reuters #Oct7

https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/evergrande-other-chinese-property-giants-have-sizeable-off-balance-sheet-debt-2021-10-07/

#PropertyAnalysis #Economy #Finance #CCPRules #Debt #ChinaMarket #Bubble
#China again blocks #WikimediaFoundation’s accreditation to World Intellectual Property Organization

//China today blocked the Wikimedia Foundation’s bid for observer status at the World Intellectual Property Organization (#WIPO) for the second timeafter the Foundation’s initial application in 2020. 

WIPO is the #UnitedNations (#UN) organization that develops international treaties on copyright, patents, trademarks and related issues. China was again the only country to object to the accreditation of the Wikimedia Foundation as an official observer.

The Foundation will reapply for official observer status in 2022, but it will only be admitted by WIPO if China decides to lift its blockade.

WIPO’s work, which shapes international rules that affect the sharing of free knowledge, impacts Wikipedia’s ability to provide hundreds of millions of people with information in their own languages

As in 2020, China’s statement falsely suggested that the Wikimedia Foundation was spreading disinformation via the independent, volunteer-led #WikimediaTaiwan chapter. The United States and the group of industrialized countries at WIPO — which also includes many European Union member states, Australia, Canada, the Holy See, Israel, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland, Turkey, and the United Kingdom — expressed their support for the Foundation’s application. Since WIPO is generally run by consensus, any one country may veto accreditation requests by non-governmental organizations.//

Read full article:
https://wikimediafoundation.org/news/2021/10/05/china-again-blocks-wikimedia-foundations-accreditation-to-world-intellectual-property-organization/

Source: Wikipedia Foundation #Oct5

#FalseAccusation #CCPRules #Wikipedia #IntellectualProperty
#CCPRules #1C1S
#ChineseEmblem Spotted on Hong Kong Government's Websites; Spokesman Cites Requirement from Newly-gazetted Ordinance

Source: Stand News #Oct8
https://bit.ly/3DlEhtA
#CCPRules #1C1S
#ChineseEmblem Spotted on Hong Kong Government's Websites; Spokesman Cites Requirement from Newly-gazetted Ordinance

On October 8, 2021, the Chinese emblem has been suddenly added to the websites of four official bodies in Hong Kong, namely the Legislative Council, the Chief Executive's Office, the Judiciary and GovHK. Other government websites, such as the websites of the Financial Secretary's Office and the Chief Secretary for Administration's Office, remain unchanged.

The emblem of the #PRC was added to the top left of all four official websites, with the Judiciary website being the largest and clearest.

Of the four websites that have been altered, the emblem on the website of the Chief Executive's Office is the most crude, with blurred lines and fonts, and the emblem appearing pixelized when the page is slightly enlarged. In addition, the new Chinese emblem is slightly larger than the Hong Kong SAR emblem.

Hong Kong government spokesman said the National Flag and Emblem (Amendment) Ordinance was gazetted on 8 October, 2021 and the Chief Executive has amended the requirement to use the emblem on the websites of the Hong Kong SAR Government, the Legislative Council and the Judiciary.

Source: Stand News #Oct8
https://bit.ly/3DlEhtA
#LegCoElection #CCPCharacteristics
In Hong Kong: 41 Privileged voters’ power is 7,200 times a single-vote holder’s under new #LegCo electoral system

//At least 41 ‘privileged voters’ will be able to influence 1.47% of LegCo seats in Sunday’s ‘improved’ election, finds a FactWire analysis. The voting power of each of these 41 four-vote holders is comparable to that of 7,215 Geographical Constituency voters who hold one vote each.

The #LegCoGeneralElection, scheduled for Sunday, December 19, will be the first one under the ‘improved electoral system’, relevant amendments having been passed in May of this year. 

Under the Improving Electoral System (Consolidated Amendments) Bill of 2021, the total number of seats in LegCo has been increased from 70 to 90. The numbers of seats in Geographical Constituencies (#GC) and Functional Constituencies (#FC) have been reduced from 35 to 20 and 30 respectively, while the newly-formed Election Committee Constituency will comprise 40 new seats.

The FC’s composition will also see changes. The District Council sector has been abolished, and three new sectors introduced: namely, ‘Commercial (third)’, ‘Technology and innovation’, and ‘HKSAR deputies to the NPC, HKSAR members of the National Committee of the CPPCC, and representatives of relevant national organisations’. In some sectors, individual electors have been replaced by corporate electors.

The electorate of the Election Committee Constituency comprises 1,500 Chief Executive Election Committee (#EC) members, each assigned a ‘block vote’ to select 40 candidates, albeit there are only 1,448 EC members in the current term, owing to vacancies in its LegCo members subsector and the fact that certain members have,ex officio, dual eligibilities.

Under the new electoral system, EC members will be significantly influential as some of them are qualified to vote in the EC Constituency, their own GC districts and two FC sectors (as individual and corporate electors respectively) at the same time, adding up to as many as four votes per person.//

Read the full article:
https://bit.ly/3s87FRI

Source: FactWire #Dec15

#Regime #AuthoritarianRule #CCPRules #PoliceState #MadeinChina

Related news:

Hong Kong Authorities Ban Citizens from Displaying "Hong Kong Add Oil" on Outfits

https://t.me/guardiansofhongkong/31621
#BrainWashing #Propaganda
"Don't Lie Flat": New Values Education Framework Promotes "Dilligence", Drops "Critical Thinking" and "Human Rights"

Hong Kong's Education Bureau (#EDB) issued the "Values Education Curriculum Framework (Pilot Version)" on November 30, 2021, as reference material for the city's primary and secondary schools.

The new framework adds "diligence" as a "priority value and attitude" on top of the nine existing values. It also emphasizes "[nurturing] a sense of belonging towards the country from an early age", so as to help students "understand their responsibility, as a Chinese, to protect their family and the country".

The announcement came days after an online article by Secretary for Education #KevinYeung, in which he stressed the importance of #ValuesEducation, while criticizing a trend to "lie flat" among young people.

[Editor's note: The term "lie flat" (躺平) is popularized by young Mainland Chinese netizens who felt disillusioned by long working hours and high social expectations.

In response, they opt for a lifestyle and work ethic of minimalistic survival, and refuse to spend extra effort or money to move up the social ladder, which they saw as being already out of their reach.]

In Hong Kong, the new framework is based on the EDB's 2008 Moral and Civic Education Framework.

The learning objectives in the older framework included "respecting human rights" and learning about the Motherland "through critical thinking". These wordings are no longer found in the new document; instead, a new objective is added: "love the country, love Hong Kong".

Source: Stand News #Nov30
https://thestandnews.page.link/avyAVFN42EnSoV8Y6

#LieFlat #TangPing #Education #ValuesEducation #CCPRules
#Propaganda #CCP
Buying Influence: How China Manipulates
#Facebook and #Twitter

//...a new set of documents reviewed by The New York Times reveals in stark detail how Chinese officials tap private businesses to generate content on demand, draw followers, track critics and provide other services for information campaigns. That operation increasingly plays out on international platforms like Facebook and Twitter, which the Chinese government blocks at home.

The documents, which were part of a request for bids from contractors, offer a rare glimpse into how China’s vast bureaucracy works to spread propaganda and to sculpt opinion on global social media. They were taken offline after The Times contacted the Chinese government about them...

A separate document reviewed by The Times shows that the same local branch of Shanghai police purchased video-making services from a different company in November. The police asked the supplier to provide at least 20 videos a month and to distribute those on domestic and overseas social media. The document referred to the task as original video production that would be used to fight the “battle of public opinion.”

Earlier this year, a New York Times and ProPublica analysis showed howthousands of videos portraying members of the Uyghur ethnic minority living happy and free lives were a key part of an information campaign that Twitter ultimately attributed to the Chinese Communist Party...

Work like what Shanghai Cloud Link pitched is likely just the tip of the iceberg. Local governments and police across China have put out similar requests for services to influence overseas social media, but often in vague terms. Occasionally, specifics are revealed.

In 2017, for instance, the police in Inner Mongolia purchased software that allowed government trolls to post directly to multiple social media sites, inside and outside of China, according to documents reviewed by The Times.

In another case, a contractor had downloaded hundreds of access credentials for Facebook’s public feed, allowing it to collect data about who commented on which posts and when.//

Read the full article:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/12/20/technology/china-facebook-twitter-influence-manipulation.htmlb

Source: New York Times #Dec20

#Manipulation #PublicOpinionManagement #SocialMedia #Meta #Disinformation #MadeinChina #CCPRules
#Regime #CCPRules
#China Bans #Christmas as 'Forbidden Western Celebration'

A leaked document showed that Chinese authorities ordered limits on festive celebrations.

The document, dated December 20, 2021 was issued by the PRC's Department of Education of Rong'an county in Liuzhou city of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

The directive, addressed to all elementary schools and kindergartens, is titled "Spreading the Chinese traditional culture and forbidding Western festival celebrations".

It urged people to report to the authorities immediately if anyone finds individuals and organizations arranging any Christmas event.

The directive also said a special officer has been designated at the County Public Security Bureau to handle complaints regarding the matter and urged people to contact the authorities immediately if anyone finds individuals and organizations arranging any Christmas event.

Source: Set News; #Dec24
https://www.setn.com/News.aspx?NewsID=1047163
Business connections of #JohnLee’s sons with CE electors revealed

//A #Factwire investigation reveals that the two sons of John Lee, the Chief Executive candidate likely to be running unopposed this year, both have connections with members of the current #ChiefExecutiveElection Committee in the business field, although John Lee’s team said he has not been involved in these connections.

John Lee’s older son, Gilbert Lee, is a senior executive at Hang Seng Bank, whose direct superior, Diana Cesar, is the bank’s chief and a finance subsector member of the Election Committee. Gilbert Lee was awarded a position in a government panel last year, soon after his father became the Chief Secretary for Administration.

Lee’s younger son Jacky Lee is a business partner of Li Sing-tui, a member of the Election Committee and the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (#CPPCC). Together, they own and operate a kindergarten in Dongguan that costs over HKD 70,000 a year to attend.//

Read full article:
https://www.factwire.org/en/business-connections-of-john-lees-sons-with-ce-electors-revealed/

Source: Factwire #Apr15

#CCPRules #HongKongElection
#SmallCircleElection #CCPRules
Former Security Head Nominated for Chief Executive Election in Hong Kong Without Any Program

In Hong Kong, #JohnLee, a former police commissioner and the secretary for secutity until recently, claimed that he has submitted 786 nominations to the Election Committee, making him the sole candidate in Hong Kong's #ChiefExecutiveElection.

Lee was known for his pro-Beijing stance and hardliner attitude in suppressing the city's prodemocracy protests.

Lee was asked by journalists to comment on the legitimacy of the election, as he has been nominated without having any program nor statement.

Lee did not give a direct response, but said, "it takes time to write a statement." Lee claimed that he is a pragmatic person and would be able to realise the policy he proposed.

Source: InMedia #Apr15
https://bit.ly/378khQJ

#Regime #PoliceState