Report claims that Shenzhen Evergrandes largest industrial park has stopped production, with employees on a two-month vacation – which information is worth paying attention to?

China Minsheng Investment’s Business

1. China Minsheng Investment has been exposed by many media outlets for being a real estate company disguised as a manufacturing enterprise. The list of overseas copper mine investments by China Geological Survey does not include China Minsheng Investment.

2. The actual tax revenue does not match the claimed “revenue,” and China Minsheng Investment cannot be found on the national list of private enterprises with high tax payments. It is not to say that these types of companies have low tax payments, as Shandong Weiqiao, with the same nominal position, has consistently ranked 12th on the list of tax payments by Chinese private enterprises for several years.

3. China Minsheng Investment first appeared in the media in 2013 with an annual revenue of only 5 billion yuan. During this time, China Minsheng Investment heavily invested in industrial parks across the country, including the Polyimide New Materials Project Base in Yingkou, Liaoning, Weihai, Shandong, and Guang’an, Sichuan, as well as the Copper Processing Industrial Park projects in Lanzhou, Gansu, and Huangshi, Hubei. According to public reports, during this period, China Minsheng Investment promised investments close to 100 billion yuan. How can a heavy asset industry enterprise with an annual revenue of 5 billion yuan invest nearly 100 billion yuan in constructing industrial parks? Financial and economic media personnel all know what China Minsheng Investment is up to.

4. What does the China Minsheng Industrial Park look like?

Let’s take a look at the China Minsheng (Pingyang) Yangtze River Delta Electronic Information Industry Project, which has an investment of 12 billion yuan.

A row of long and narrow factory buildings has been built on one side of the main road, and the land that has been allocated behind them seems to have not even started construction. But why is there only the presence of less than three vehicles in the supposedly operational park’s parking area?

The answer to this question is not complicated either. During the same period, China Minsheng Investment and Central-South Real Estate jointly established a joint venture company called Pingyang Chunhui Real Estate Co., Ltd., and launched the Central-South · Shangdongyue Commodity Housing Project, with a land price of over 5000 yuan per square meter and an average selling price of approximately 14,000 yuan per square meter.

5. What is the essence of China Minsheng Investment?

Let’s take a look at its investment business.

Government Investment Attraction and Business Development

There are many companies that operate under this model, not just Zhengwei.

In the future, there may be more and more companies of this kind, triggering a wave of bankruptcies.

In the past twenty years, real estate companies have made tons of money, which has led many companies to want to become developers themselves and make a profit.

Other aspects are not important; everything can be outsourced. The core abilities of real estate companies are actually financing and acquiring land.

In order to develop, one needs to have money or connections to acquire land. What options do companies have if they lack both?

It is enough to establish strong ties with the local government. The government will take care of everything else. But how can one establish such ties without a deep background?

Regardless of whether local governments have money or not, they all have the task of attracting investment. As long as they can attract investments, regardless of profitability, it is considered good.

However, the competition between local governments is too intense. Tax incentives, exemptions, and reductions are offered to attract businesses. Land is even given away for free to encourage factory construction.

But the investment attraction departments of local governments lack expertise, so many companies have emerged that provide services to the government in attracting investments.

These companies specialize in studying various preferential policies of the government, researching successful approaches to attracting investment in different regions, and summarizing and optimizing them.

They can provide a one-stop service for local governments in attracting investments, from building industrial parks and supporting facilities to attracting businesses to settle in.

If local governments lack funds, these companies can even provide the funding for building parks and factories. They will only require the local government to allocate a piece of land for them to build residential buildings.

The money from selling the houses can be used to repay the previous funding, achieving a win-win situation for both the government and the company.

On one hand, the government effortlessly completes the challenging task of attracting investments. On the other hand, the construction of parks, factories, and residential buildings can boost GDP.

They can even change the nature of industrial land to residential land, saving a lot of money in land purchases and avoiding the complicated bidding process.

Operating behind closed doors is very convenient, and the process of building parks is susceptible to interest transfers. Corrupt individuals can indirectly profit from these arrangements, making it safer for them to obtain money.

Furthermore, this approach can quickly boost GDP and showcase achievements by the government, even before all the industrial parks are fully operational and companies have moved in.

As for whether there will be abandoned projects, that is a matter for the successor. It is normal for the new leaders to not want to deal with old matters.

However, the number of local debts and abandoned projects is increasing. When the economy is prosperous, these projects can sustain the economy. But when the economy is in recession, they become ticking time bombs.

Many small cities may not be familiar with this method due to their lack of industrial experience. But they still have ways to profit, such as the famous Haining Leather City.

Under the guise of building a trading city, they actually make money by selling residential buildings. Once the houses are sold, the flow of people to the trading city stops, causing it to decline immediately.

Quanwei Copper Industry Suddenly Ceases Production

Quanwei Copper Industry’s Revenue of Hundreds of Billions Stops Production Suddenly

On November 9th, a notice of production halt and leave with the signature “Human Resources Department of Quanwei Copper Industry” circulated in the market. The notice summarized the reasons for the production halt mainly as “high raw material costs,” “weakened downstream demand,” and “contract shrinkage.”

“I’m not sure if the orders are good or not, but it seems like there is a problem with production.” A knowledgeable insider who had business dealings with Quanwei Copper Industry revealed, “Their (Quanwei Copper Industry) production has been intermittent since the beginning of this year because the last time I contacted them for goods, they said they had none.”

On November 16th, investigators arrived at Quanwei Industrial Park on Cuilake Road in the Economic Development Zone of Tongling City, where Quanwei Copper Industry is located. Despite the public release of the notice and reasons for the production halt, several security guards in the guard room remained tense and vigilant.

“Why are you asking about this (whether production has stopped)? I don’t know (shaking head).” After stating their purpose, the security personnel of Quanwei Copper Industry impatiently refused to answer questions about whether the company had taken leave or not. Another visitor at the entrance was also prohibited from entering. “You can’t enter, leave quickly.”

“A lot of people know about the production halt that was announced a few days ago.” During the investigation process, an employee in the neighboring factory area of Quanwei Copper Industry told the investigators.

Why did Quanwei Copper Industry, just a short wall away, halt production? The interviewee shook their head and said, “Business conditions are just one aspect. They didn’t stop because of this (business) issue; they have other reasons.” However, the details of these reasons were not disclosed by the individual.

According to the official website of China Zhong Wei Group, Quanwei Copper Industry’s Anhui Tongling Copper Manufacturing Industrial Park was established in 2007. In 2010, Quanwei Copper Industry entered the top 101 of China’s Top 500 Private Enterprises, the top 69 of the Top 500 Manufacturing Enterprises, and ranked first among the top 100 private enterprises in Anhui Province. According to data from the non-ferrous industry platform Copper Yunhui, in 2022, Quanwei Copper Industry achieved a revenue of 95.143 billion yuan, accounting for approximately 16% of the total revenue of 600 billion yuan for China Zhong Wei Group.

The sudden news of the production halt by Quanwei Copper Industry came just over two months ago. On August 11th, the official WeChat account of Quanwei Copper Industry published a “good news” announcement stating that Quanwei Copper Industry was awarded the title of “Top 50 Local Enterprises” and “Top 30 Local Enterprises in Tax Payment” in Tongling City in 2022. Deputy General Manager Shao Dan also attended the award ceremony on stage.

“Most of these places are undeveloped wastelands…I haven’t seen many large-tonnage trucks like those in other copper plants around here.” A taxi driver expressed to the investigators.

It is worth mentioning that some media reports have openly stated that another industrial park invested 12 billion yuan by Zhong Wei Group in Pingyang, Zhejiang, is suspected of being “abandoned.” The copper rod production line of the park has never been put into operation, and the copper wire and bonding wire workshop only has partial capacity. It has long been lacking orders, and production only occurs when leaders come to inspect.

According to official information, as a metallurgical mining company, Quanwei Copper Industry mainly produces 8.0mm/2.6mm copper rods. In terms of production capacity, it is claimed to have the capacity to produce 250,000 tons of bright low-oxygen copper rods and 140,000 tons of bare copper wire and other series of products.

On several social networking platforms, it was noticed that several alleged former employees of Quanwei Copper Industry made “disclosures” in the comment section. Among them, a netizen with an IP address in Anhui commented: “Quanwei Copper Industry has basically never produced anything, mainly focusing on loans.” However, when further verification was sought, the netizen did not provide any explanation or response regarding their statement.

During the field visits, a local insider from Tongling revealed that they had visited Quanwei Copper Industry at the end of 2021 to conduct research and discussed issues such as the relocation and attraction of high-tech enterprises. During the visit, they learned about some statistical data of Quanwei Copper Industry. However, due to unsatisfactory results and issues related to regional division, Quanwei Copper Industry was ultimately removed from the list of potential candidates.

In addition, a financial industry insider from Tongling revealed that the recent production halt by Quanwei Copper Industry was subject to financial investigation.

A local person from Tongling provided a different explanation, saying: “The leave is mainly due to poor overall business conditions, but the notice states a two-month leave, which may just be a temporary statement. It is not ruled out that the shutdown may be extended and even a full-scale halt may occur.”

Regarding the business problems encountered by Quanwei Copper Industry, alleged employee online comments, and the specific reasons for the production halt, on November 17th, after going through multiple transfers, investigators finally reached the general office of Quanwei Copper Industry by phone. After the call was connected, one staff member who declined to disclose their name and position confirmed that the company is currently on leave mainly because there are no orders.

Wang Wenyin preemptively “separated from positions” before the production halt

Three days before Quanwei Copper Industry announced the production halt notice, Tianyancha (a business information platform) showed that on November 6th, the legal representative of Quanwei Copper Industry and several executives left their respective positions, including the legal representative and chairman Wang Wenyin, director Liu Jiehong, director Wu Xueying, and general manager Wang Lixing.

According to Tianyancha, earlier on October 27th, a large amount of equity of Quanwei Copper Industry was frozen. The Intermediate People’s Court of Shenyang froze a total of 1 billion yuan equity of Quanwei Copper Industry in Shenyang Shengjin Investment Management Center (Limited Partnership) (referred to as Shengjin Investment). At the same time, on October 20th, the Intermediate People’s Court of Ningde City, Fujian Province froze 53.93 million yuan of equity of Shenzhen Zhengwei (Group) Co., Ltd. (referred to as “Shenzhen Zhengwei”). The executed enterprise was Quanwei Copper Industry.

Behind Shenzhen Zhengwei is the well-known Zhengwei International Group Co., Ltd. As of August 2023, it has been on the Fortune Global 500 list for 11 consecutive years. Its controlling person, Wang Wenyin, has been called the “World Copper King” for publicly claiming to hold trillions of dollars worth of mineral resources.

In addition to stepping down from major positions in Quanwei Copper Industry, in the past two months, several subsidiary companies under Wang Wenyin’s jurisdiction have undergone personnel adjustments. At the end of October, Wang Wenyin stepped down as chairman and general manager of Shenzhen Zhengwei. Sun Xueyong took over as the legal representative, chairman, and general manager of Shenzhen Zhengwei. On November 3rd, a similar personnel change occurred in Shenzhen Chengwei New Materials Co., Ltd., another company under Zhengwei’s umbrella. Wang Wenyin stepped down as the legal representative and executive director, and Sun Xueyong took over. On November 9th, Wang Wenyin stepped down as the executive director of Anhui Jingwei High Conductivity New Materials Technology Co., Ltd.

Tianyancha shows that on May 3rd, Wang Wenyin stepped down as an executive director of Guangxi Qingwei Industrial Co., Ltd. (referred to as “Guangxi Qingwei”), and Zhou Yong, the general manager of Guangxi Qingwei at the time, also stepped down. On November 9th, the manager and executive director of Guangxi Qingwei stepped down once again, and the successor was the familiar name, Sun Xueyong.

Tianyancha shows that recently, the number of risk alerts related to companies where Sun Xueyong serves as the legal representative has increased to 220, including but not limited to cases where companies fail to fulfill legal obligations on time and are subject to compulsory enforcement by the court, a portion of equity held in other companies is pledged, and equity held in other companies is frozen or executed.

Publishing Restrictions and Promotion Requirements

There are many similar situations that I would like to discuss, but I am unable to do so.

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I want to share my thoughts, but this platform is not suitable. Perhaps I need to find another place to do so.

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Improvement in Sino-American and Sino-Japanese Relations

So what if private enterprises in China are celebrating while Sino-American and Sino-Japanese relations are warming up? They deserve a few months off, don’t they?