According to data, as many as 21 state-owned enterprises have been issued “penalties” since the beginning of this year. On June 5th, “State-owned Enterprise Fraud” trended on social media, sparking widespread discussions. Public opinion mainly focuses on listed state-owned enterprises such as Jinzhou Port that have been found to be involved in financial fraud.
Following ST Zhongtai (Zhongtai Chemical) and ST Ruikai (Guorui Technology), state-controlled listed company Jinzhou Port (ST Jingang) received a “Notice of Administrative Penalties and Market Exclusion” from the China Securities Regulatory Commission on June 1st.
It was found that Jinzhou Port engaged in non-substantive trade with seven companies to artificially inflate operating income, operating costs, and total profits. From 2018 to 2021, the company inflated operating income by more than 8.6 billion yuan in total.
Media under People’s Daily reported that Jinzhou Port is just a microcosm of strict supervision, especially for enterprises with scale and state-owned background. With the gradual implementation of mandatory measures like “retrospective review of 10 years of financial data,” more and more enterprises endorsed by their scale and state-owned background have been found to engage in serious violations such as financial fraud.
In the capital market, state-owned enterprises were once considered a safe haven for investors. State-owned enterprises were viewed as having a natural sense of trust and security. However, this endorsement and trust have become a “protective umbrella” for corporate illegal activities.
Data from Tonghuashun iFinD shows that as of June 4th, state-owned enterprises have been subject to regulatory penalties for “violation behaviors” 119 times this year, an increase of 45 companies compared to the same period last year. Among them, 35 enterprises have been penalized more than twice, an increase of 16 from the previous year.
A total of 21 state-owned enterprises have been issued “Administrative Penalty Decision” for “illegal activities,” an increase of 13 compared to the same period last year. Among these 21 enterprises, only ST Zhongtai was issued two “Administrative Penalty Decisions.” Additionally, seven state-owned companies have received “Notice of Administrative Penalties” this year.
Notably, Evergrande Real Estate and its former chairman Xu Jiayin were fined a total of 4.175 billion yuan for inflating revenue and fraudulent bond issuance. PricewaterhouseCoopers, the audit agency of Evergrande Real Estate, was also involved in the case. Recently, PricewaterhouseCoopers has lost several major audit contracts, with listed central enterprises like China Petroleum canceling their cooperation within a short period.
According to Wind data, in 2023, PricewaterhouseCoopers’ A-share annual audit clients totaled 107, with top audit income coming from Chinese clients in industries such as finance, telecommunications, and engineering. Among the top ten clients, three were from the finance sector including Bank of China, China Life, and PICC; three were from central enterprises including China Telecom, China Petroleum, and China Railway; the other four included prominent listed companies like Shanghai Pharma and Shanghai Electric.
Currently, the Chinese Communist Party has regarded economic security as an essential component of regime stability, with even the Chinese Ministry of State Security cracking down on “stability maintenance” last year, vowing to “spare no effort to safeguard the bottom line of preventing systemic risks.” Former Beijing lawyer Lai Jianping previously told Dajiyuan that “this exposes how bad China’s economy is and that the authorities are out of options.”
According to Tonghuashun iFinD data, last year at least 138 A-share listed companies or related parties were investigated by the China Securities Regulatory Commission, involving listed companies, executives, controlling shareholders, etc., marking a 79.22% increase compared to the previous year.