They said commodities firms could never go bust in China: they were wrong & Wang Yi fixates on Taiwan in UN speech while rumors of a Chinese military coup take over Twitter -- China Boss News 9.26.22
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China's largest copper trader in liquidity crisis amid property market woes and Covid lockdowns
“After months of rumors” the owner of China’s largest copper trader Maike “admitted publicly last month” that the conglomerate is in trouble, Bloomberg’s Alfred Cang and Jack Farchy reported. He Jinbi’s fortune, made from China’s “ravenous demand for raw materials,” was invested into China’s property market that’s now plummeting.
Cang & Farchy, Bloomberg:
Now Maike is suffering a liquidity crisis, and He’s empire is under threat. The ripple effects could be felt across the world: the company handles a million tons a year — a quarter of China’s refined copper imports — making it the largest player in the most important global trade route for the metal, and a major trader on the London Metal Exchange.
In an interview with the Financial Times over the weekend, He said Maike “is selling assets and studying a broader restructuring.”
FT:
Maike was discussing an investment with state-owned groups in the central city of Xi'an, said He, but the government has told him to scale down the business first.
“We’re actively selling assets and equities to replenish our liquidity and reduce debt,” said He. The company was “breaking arms to survive”, an expression that means sacrificing parts of the business in order to save it.
Former business partner David Lilley told Bloomberg that “[i]n some ways Maike’s story is the story of modern China,” and that He “skillfully” navigated the ups and downs of China’s economic reforms for a while. “[B]ut no one was prepared for the Covid lockdowns,” he said.
Cang & Farchy, Bloomberg:
As the state became an ever more dominant force in China’s business world, He turned his focus to investing in his hometown, Xi’an, backing projects under Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative.
This year, however, He’s empire started to wobble.
The city of Xi’an faced a month-long lockdown in December and January, and further restrictions in April and July as Covid re-emerged, hurting He’s property investments. His hotels sat almost empty for months, and some commercial tenants simply stopped paying rent.
In August, Australia’s Financial Review newspaper warned that “sustained strength in the [copper] commodity price is conditional upon China reversing its zero tolerance approach to COVID-19.” The Chinese market accounts “for more than half of global demand,” it said.
For the rest of Cang & Farchy’s Bloomberg story, Tycoon Running a Quarter of China’s Copper Trade Is on the Ropes, click here. For FT’s interview with He, China’s Maike Metals will sell assets and restructure, says chair, click here. For AFR’s report, Copper demand unlikely to recover until China abandons COVID-zero, click here.
Law and International Xi
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi fixates on Taiwan in UN speech
“Although the foreign minister on Saturday addressed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – a primary focus for global leaders this week – he devoted little more attention to it than he did to Afghanistan, Cuba or the Korean peninsula in a rapid-fire overview of global hotspots,” South China Morning Post reported. “Instead Wang spoke at length about Taiwan, warning the international community against any erosion in the self-ruled island’s status as an ‘inseparable’ part of China,” news staff said.
SCMP:
“Only when China is completely reunified can there be enduring peace across the Taiwan Strait,” the career diplomat said. “Any move to obstruct China’s reunification is bound to be crushed by the wheels of history.”
The Wall Street Journal’s James T. Aredy also noticed the odd obsession with Taiwan given the number of pressing issues to be discussed by the international community at this year’s UN General Assembly meeting in New York. “China’s foreign minister promoted one issue above all others in a flurry of diplomatic meetings at the United Nations this week: Beijing’s sovereignty over Taiwan,” he said.
But Beijing’s envoys were also bristling during the UN Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva, where they sparred with Western diplomats and human rights advocates who “are stepping up pressure on the United Nations to act over China’s treatment of the Uighurs,” Aljazeera staff said.
Aljazeera:
The call for action took place as world leaders arrived in New York City for the annual United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) meeting, and two weeks after the UN Human Rights Council found in a landmark report that China had potentially committed “crimes against humanity” in Xinjiang.
“Inaction is no longer possible,” Fernand de Varennes, the UN’s special rapporteur on minority rights, said at the forum sponsored by the Atlantic Council and Human Rights Watch. “If we allow this to go unpunished, what kind of message is being propagated?”
Jeffrey Prescott, a deputy US ambassador to the UN, suggested the integrity of the institution was at stake in its response to China.
“How these atrocities are addressed goes ultimately to the credibility of that system, to the credibility of our international system itself,” he said. “It’s deeply disheartening to see a country that has been so central to the creation of the modern UN system, and enjoys its status as a permanent member of the Security Council, so profoundly violating its commitments.”
China said on Thursday that it was “readying ‘counter-measures’” for action taken against it, according to Reuters.
Reuters:
"We are not afraid of that," Xu Guixiang, a Xinjiang government spokesman told journalists in Geneva, referring to a possible anti-China motion at the council. "We are going to take countermeasures. We are ready for the fight actually so that the light of justice can shine in the world," he said, without elaborating.
For the rest of the South China Morning Post’s report, China tells UN it seeks end to Russia’s war in Ukraine as it warns on Taiwan, click here. For Areddy’s update in the Wall Street Journal, China Stresses Its Taiwan Stance at U.N., click here.
For Aljazeera’s report, China faces pressure at United Nations after Xinjiang report, click here. For Reuters’ update, China 'ready for the fight' if Xinjiang motion is brought to UN rights body, click here.
Hong Kong’s Cardinal Zen on trial for setting up fund to pay legal fees of pro-democracy activists and supporters
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