• The world’s biggest pork producer WH Group logged a better-than-expected 26.98% jump in net profit to USD466 million for the first half of the year, boosted by a product-mix upgrade and effective cost cutting. Revenue increased 2.3% to USD10.45 billion. WH Group also controls U.S. meat processor Smithfield Foods. WH Group shares have risen 30.23% in the past six months.
• Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with counterparts from Japan and the Republic of Korea – Fumio Kishida and Yun Byung-se – in Tokyo, to try to improve relations. China’s relations with South Korea are strained due to the possible installation of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense anti-missile system, which may put part of China under the system’s radar. Long-standing disputes with Japan over sovereignty over the Diaoyu islands and World War II history remain unresolved.
• A foreign language test system was introduced in Shanghai to help people seeking employment with international companies demonstrate their proficiency. The Oral Proficient Interview Computer System (OPIC), developed by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL), currently covers 13 languages and five of them, English, Russian, Japanese, Korean and Spanish, are now available in China.
• Yin Hailin, 56, Vice Mayor of Tianjin, is being investigated for “serious violations of discipline,” the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) announced. Several other Tianjin officials have also been caught up in China’s ongoing campaign against corruption.
• Restricting the exploitation of natural resources in the ecology-fragile Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau is good for economic development, President Xi Jinping said during an inspection tour. Protecting the ecological environment of the Sanjiangyuan area, known as “China’s water tower”, where the headwaters of the Yangtze, Yellow and Lancang rivers are located, is vital for the nation’s development, Xi added.
• Wang Menghui, Party Secretary of Xiamen, Fujian province, was appointed as Party Secretary of Shenyang, the capital of Liaoning province. Wang, 56, replaced Zeng Wei, who served in the position in Shenyang for eight years. Shenyang, as well as the rest of Liaoning province, is under heavy pressure to reform its traditional manufacturing industries. Liaoning was the only province to report a negative GDP growth rate, minus 1%, in the first half of this year.
• Wang Bao’an, former Director of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), has been expelled from the Communist Party for actions including “superstitious activities” and “insatiably” trading power for sex, according to the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI). His case will now be transferred to prosecutors.
• Shanxi Governor Li Xiaopeng, the son of former Premier Li Peng, is tipped to be promoted to Transport Minister amid a personnel reshuffle after the Beidaihe meetings in August. Lou Yangsheng, currently Deputy Party Secretary of Shanxi, will become the new Governor.
• Wu Yingjie has been appointed as Party Secretary of the Tibet Autonomous Region. He is the first person to hold the position after spending his entire political career in the region. Born in Shandong province, Wu, 59, has worked in Tibet since 1974. His predecessor, Chen Quanguo, will receive a new appointment, Xinhua reported. Du Jiahao was appointed Party Secretary in Hunan province and Chen Hao in Yunnan province.
• Su Wei, China’s chief climate negotiator who helped secure the historic Paris agreement, left the National Development and Reform Commission’s Climate Change Office after being appointed Director of the Commission’s International Cooperation Department.

Fujian New Long Ma Motor Co, one of the major minivan producers in China, sold a controlling 65% stake to a consortium led by the Sino-Swedish joint venture National Electric Vehicle Sweden (NEVS) and Beijing State Research Information Technology Co. NEVS bought the main assets of Saab Automobile in 2012. Fujian Motor Industry Group Co and Longyan City, the former shareholders of Fujian New Long Ma, will hold 20% and 15% shares respectively after the restructuring. With its eyes on the country’s emerging new-energy vehicle industry, the minivan maker aims to release a pure electric sedan, the 93EV, in the fourth quarter of 2017 and add new assembly lines to produce electric vehicles and sport utility vehicles (SUVs) in the future. “We want to play a key role in China’s new-energy vehicle industry,” said Kai Johan Jiang, Chairman of National Electric Vehicle Sweden, the main assets holder of Saab. The capacity goal of the Fujian company is 150,000 vehicles per year. The company expects to make a profit by 2017 and reach CNY20 billion sales revenue in 2020, the China Daily reports.

The immigration inspection station at Shanghai Pudong International Airport expanded its self-service entry inspection channels to foreigners holding electronic passports who have residence permits for six months or longer. Previously, only registered flight crew members and expats holding permanent Chinese residence permits could enjoy the service, which takes about 10 seconds for each passenger. But first-time users must have their passports registered and their fingerprints and facial image entered into the computer system when entering China by air. This can be done at the immigration inspection station at the airport. They can then go to any one of the 27 electronic channels, each of which has two gates. They will first have their passports scanned, which will open the first gate, and the second gate will open when their fingerprints and faces are electronically recognized. The self-service system is much quicker than the traditional inspection procedures, which involves queuing for a face-to-face with an immigration official. More than one million non-foreign passengers have used the e-channels in the first half of this year. A total of 28.5 million travelers have entered or departed from Shanghai in the first half of this year, up 15% over last year, the Shanghai Daily reports.

The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) has officially denied China is at risk of a “liquidity trap”. Growth of M2 – a broad measure of money supply – slowed to 10.2% in July, while growth in M1, mainly cash and cash deposits, accelerated to 25.4% last month. It was the strongest monthly growth since June 2010, suggesting that a lot of money created by the People’s Bank of China was idle in corporate accounts. With or without a liquidity trap, the PBOC is facing an uphill battle to channel funds into real economic activity instead of speculation in the financial and property markets. In July, new bank loans to corporate borrowers shrank, and mortgages made up the bulk of total new credit. The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said that a lot of money was not used to finance economic activity but to repay old debt and to speculate on commodities. Private investment growth slowed to 2.1% over the first seven months and the reluctance of private investors to spend on plant and equipment helped drag down the pace of overall investment to 8.1% in July. Liu Shijin, former Deputy Director of the State Council’s Development Research Center, said economic growth was “very close” to the bottom. “It’s very likely that the Chinese economy will bottom out in two or three years,” Liu said, as reported by the South China Morning Post.

China’s non-financial outbound direct investment (ODI) soared to CNY673.24 billion from January to July, a 61.8% year-on-year increase, said Shen Danyang, Spokesperson of the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM). July’s ODI reached CNY91.01 billion, down 9.5% month-on-month. During the first seven months of the year, China’s ODI surpassed its foreign direct investment (FDI), meaning it was a net capital exporter. During the same period, China’s FDI rose 4.3% year-on-year to CNY491.51 billion. The United States and Germany were among the most popular investment destinations for Chinese companies. During the seven-month period, ODI in both countries more than doubled from a year earlier. Large overseas mergers and acquisitions contributed to the ODI growth. From January to July, China’s overseas M&As totaled USD54.3 billion, accounting for more than half of the total ODI. The M&A value in the first seven months of 2016 surpassed the volume registered for the whole of 2015. From January to July, there were M&As by Chinese enterprises in 63 countries and regions, covering 15 sectors including information transmission, services, software and manufacturing. By the end of July, China’s accumulated investment under the Belt and Road Initiative hit USD51.1 billion, taking up 12% of the country’s total ODI.