China Sentences Canadian Businessman to 11 Years in Prison

BusinessTianjin 2021-10-09

China Sentences Canadian Businessman to 11 Years in Prison

A court in China sentenced a Canadian businessman, Michael Spavor, to 11 years in prison after declaring him guilty of spying on Wednesday, deepening a split with Canada, which has condemned the case as political hostage-taking.
Mr. Spavor has the right to appeal the judgment, but Chinese courts rarely overturn criminal judgments, and his fate could rest on deal-making among Beijing, Ottawa and Washington at a time when Beijing’s relations with Western powers are particularly tense. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada, in a statement, denounced Mr. Spavor’s sentence as “absolutely unacceptable and unjust.”

In a brief online statement, the court in Dandong, a northeast Chinese city next to North Korea where Mr. Spavor had often done business, also said that he would be deported, but gave no details about the timing. The court said it had found Mr. Spavor guilty of obtaining state secrets and providing them to a foreign recipient, but offered no details.

China Evergrande Soars After Confirming Talks to Sell Assets

China Evergrande Group’s stock and bonds jumped Wednesday after the company said it’s in talks to sell stakes in two of its units, potentially injecting fresh funds into the cash-strapped property firm.
The discussions involve “several independent third-party investors,” the company said in a statement to the Hong Kong exchange late Tuesday. Talks involve Evergrande stakes in its electric vehicle start-up and property services units.

Evergrande jumped as much as 12% in Hong Kong, bringing its three-day gain to 26% on expectations the world’s most-indebted developer will ease its cash crunch with asset sales. The electric vehicle and property services stocks also rose for a third day.

The troubled property giant has been offloading assets and listing units in an attempt to stave off a liquidity crisis, saddled with more than $300 billion in liabilities. Evergrande’s equity and bond holders have been rattled in recent weeks by a slew of reports about wary banks and unpaid bills to suppliers. Last week, a Caixin report saying that creditor lawsuits against Evergrande would be consolidated triggered another slump in the developer’s bonds.

Assuming Evergrande maintains control of the auto and property services units, the firm may raise about HK$25 billion from selling minority stakes, said Raymond Cheng, a property analyst at CGS-CIMB Securities.

“It’s positive for Evergrande,” Cheng said. “We prudently believe that Evergrande bankruptcy risk may not be as high as bond prices suggested.”

If realized, the sales may help Evergrande reduce its net debt-to-equity ratio by about 10% to 90%, Cheng said, adding he expects the ratio fell to 99% by the end of the first half. Evergrande said in late June that the ratio dipped below 100%, meeting a key debt metric of China’s “Three Red Lines” requirement for property developers.

恒大拟出售汽车和物业股权“自救”旗下公司连续三日大涨
8月10日晚，中国恒大集团发布不寻常证券价格和交易量波动公告称，正在接触几家潜在独立第三方投资者探讨有关出售公司旗下部分资产，包括但不限于出售公司上市附属公司中国恒大新能源汽车以及恒大物业集团的部分权益。
实际上，早在8月9日，市场就有消息称，在有关部门的协调之下，一批有实力的国企可能将接手恒大相应资产，以帮助恒大渡过短期资金流动性难关。
在该消息的刺激下，恒大系股票已经连续三日上涨。自8月9日至发稿，中国恒大累计上涨超过20%；恒大物业累计上涨超过50%；恒大汽车涨超18%。
易居房地产研究总监严跃进表示，对于恒大而言，出售旗下优质资产，能够在很大程度上缓解企业现阶段的资金压力。此类出售计划有助于安抚债权人的心态，释放企业未来流动性可以改善的信号。

All China's major airports to apply RFID luggage tracking by end of year

China's major airports will enhance their luggage management service capabilities by intensively applying the radio frequency identification (RFID) technology in luggage tracking, according to the country's civil aviation authorities.

Within the year, all major airports with annual passenger throughputs exceeding 10 million will apply RFID, according to the Civil Aviation Administration of China.

As of June this year, 27 major airports with annual passenger throughputs above the 10-million level had approved and are pushing forward RFID application projects.

Multiple Chinese airlines are capable of providing services through which passengers can check the conditions of their luggage throughout their journey.

From January to June this year, China's civil aviation industry provided whole-journey luggage tracking services for more than 792,800 pieces of luggage aboard 32,667 flights, according to statistics from the CAAC.
全国各大机场行李追踪RFID年内覆盖
今年上半年，民航全行业完成固定资产投资435亿元，同比增长8.5%。截至6月底，有23座机场正在建设中。从加强枢纽机场改扩建，到加大偏远地区中小机场建设，布局完善、功能健全的现代化国家机场体系正在加速形成。
“十四五”期间，中国民航以智慧民航建设为主线，推动行业数字化转型。中国民航局印发的《推动新型基础设施建设促进民航高质量发展实施意见》提出，依托新一代信息技术，实现“出行一张脸、物流一张单、通关一次检、运行一张网、监管一平台”的目标。
“随着智慧民航建设不断推进，旅客航空出行体验将大幅改善。”韩钧介绍，比如今年40家枢纽机场将实现射频识别技术（RFID）全覆盖，这是民航业行李管理领域最先进的技术手段之一。它应用于行李全流程跟踪系统，比条码识别更快、更准，能大幅降低出错率，既节省时间，又能让旅客通过手机查看行李状态。
此外，加大偏远地区中小机场建设，也是新发展阶段机场投资的侧重点。
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