Taliban allow women to enter government medical colleges, UN welcomes

After taking over the administrative affairs in Afghanistan, the Taliban's decisions have been criticized around the world, the issue of women's education and employment has always been in the headlines. I have been allowed to enter. According to the report, the Taliban has reportedly allowed female high school graduates in Afghanistan to enroll in government medical institutions for the new academic year starting in March. 

According to the Afghan News Agency, following a directive from the Ministry of Public Health in Kabul yesterday, the entry process has begun in more than a dozen Afghan provinces. The agency did not provide further information on this.

According to the report of Bakhtar, the official news agency of Afghanistan, the process of admission of women in medical colleges of more than a dozen Afghan provinces has started after the instructions of the Afghan Ministry of Health. The report states that after this decision, those girls who have passed the 12th pass for admission to medical colleges in several provinces of the country including Kapisa, Paktia, Parwan, Panjshir, Paktika, Bamiyan, Badakhshan, Ghazni, Maidan Wardak, Khost and Loghar. can refer

Since regaining power in Afghanistan in August 2021, the Taliban has banned girls from education beyond the sixth grade and barred women from working in the public and private sectors.

The UN mission on social media website X said that UMAMA welcomes the decision of the Afghan Transitional Government, which will allow girls to get admission in medical colleges in 11 provinces of the country. The United Nations called the decision an important step towards reducing the gap in medical facilities in the war-torn country. The statement said women and girls must have access to secondary and higher education.

It should be noted that after regaining power in Afghanistan in August 2021, the Taliban banned girls from studying beyond the sixth grade, not only that, but also prevented women from working in all public and private sectors. Because of this, he has been facing severe criticism.

"Leek" must read: Institutional flaws in China's securities market

On February 23, the Shanghai Composite Index recovered 3,000 points. Many retail investors actually did not feel much joy.

Li Xiaomin, a veteran A-share investor, watched in 2023 as he earned 2.8 million yuan in 2021, and then returned to zero bit by bit as the index fell. In the process, he constantly adjusted his mentality and figured out when to sell out. After all, he still hoped to lose less. However, as the stock market fell to a new low on February 5, news came out that President Xi Jinping might personally rescue the market. The timing of the appearance suddenly became clear to Li Xiaomin, "The boss has a meeting, and there will be a wave of gains after the holiday. Wait until then." Once you wait, almost all of them will be cleared, You don’t know what restrictions will be imposed after that, and you may not be allowed to sell them.”

The stock market crash on February 5 caused investors to leave 130,000 messages on the Weibo account of the U.S. Embassy in China. The U.S. Embassy Weibo account was moderated a few hours later, but investors turned to the Indian Embassy account to leave messages to vent. The next day, Bloomberg quoted anonymous sources as saying that Chinese President Xi Jinping would discuss stock market issues with financial institutions. Although the news was not officially confirmed by relevant departments, on February 7, Yi Huiman, chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, was replaced without warning.

The plunge in the stock market caused outrage among retail investors, which was in serious contrast to Xi Jinping's policy of building a "financial power".

The Shanghai Composite Index and Shenzhen Component Index have been sluggish since mid-2023, and have been falling all the way in January 2024. On January 10, they first fell to the lowest point since May 2020, and then fell below 2,700 points on February 5. Reaching a five-year low; Oriental Fortune Choice data shows that as of January 1, 2024, there are 5,335 A-share listed companies, with a total market value of 87.66 trillion yuan.

The stock market has been described as a “barometer” of the economy. Nicolas Spiro, a partner at Lauressa Advisory, a London-based macro and real estate consulting firm, told Radio Free Asia, “The stock market is just a symptom of the real problem—the real problem is the outside world’s perception of the government. Loss of confidence, loss of trust in the ability to manage the economy.”

Bad news keeps coming

The Shanghai Composite Index closed at 2974.93 points in 2023, a decline of 3.7% for the whole year. The Shanghai Composite 50 closed at 2326.17, a decline of 11.73% for the whole year; the Shenzhen Composite Component Index closed at 9524.69, a decline of 13.54% for the whole year; the Shanghai and Shenzhen 300 Index fell by more than 11% cumulatively in 2024 It has fallen further by 2.5% since January this year.

Since China relaxed the control of the new crown epidemic in December 2022, it has encountered a decline in exports, the bursting of the real estate bubble, a sharp rise in youth unemployment and sluggish domestic demand. After the withdrawal of foreign investment and the end of the zero-clearance policy by the Chinese government in December 2020, the originally expected A rebound in consumption has not occurred.

After the Shanghai Composite Index fell to a minimum of 3,053 points on August 25, 2023, the five departments of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, the People's Bank of China, the State Administration of Taxation, the Ministry of Finance, and the State Administration of Financial Supervision launched stamp tax reductions, tightened IPOs, strictly controlled shareholding reductions, and increased leverage. Combination measures. However, the five major departments' combined efforts to activate the capital market failed to achieve their goals. The index fell below 3,000 points again on October 20, and government departments once again faced a battle to defend 3,000 points.

Li Xiaomin, a senior investor, pointed out from his personal experience that the stock market has been rising in 2019. By 2021, he took advantage of the trend to increase his position and invested millions in the stock market. “Originally, everyone was relatively confident in the market. I always felt that the economy was okay and the vitality was still there. , so I didn’t quit.” Unexpectedly, the stock price fell all the way later. "Now not only is the 2.8 million gone, but some of the principal has also been lost."

Retail investors

Different from other stock markets, the 200 million retail investors are a major feature of the Chinese stock market. In June 2023, Hu Xijin , an internet celebrity and former editor-in-chief of the Global Times , called on more retail investors to enter the market, causing many people to lose their savings over the years.

Hu Xijin announced his entry into the stock market with a high profile when the stock market was 3144 points on June 27, 2023. Then on July 7, he pointed out on Weibo, "Because the continued large-scale expansion of the housing market is not optimistic, many people don't know where the money in their hands is going, so they can only deposit it in banks. The stock market should become an important next destination for funds. "

Hu Xijin's high-profile stock trading has attracted the attention of many financial experts, some of whom believe that Hu Xijin brings traffic to himself through stock trading. Liu Jipeng, the former dean of the Institute of Capital Finance at China University of Political Science and Law, who participated in drafting the Securities Law and other laws, pointed out that Hu Xijin started a unique business model. He speculated in the "stock market", not stocks. "The money Hu Xijin made from stock trading , far less than what he earns from the traffic brought by stock trading.”

As the stock market continued to decline after Hu Xi entered the market, he continued to make remarks to encourage investors to persevere. In a forum, he pointed out that when the stock market drops to 2800 points, he will increase his position. There is gold everywhere below 2800 points; if it drops below 2700 points, he will increase his position. He even repeatedly said that as long as he held the stock until it reached a low point and did not sell it, he would avoid the fate of being a leek. However, in December, he couldn't hold on any longer. He changed his tune and said that if he lost 500,000 yuan from stock trading and was left with 50,000 yuan, he would jump off the building . Angry investors are not only dissatisfied with the securities regulatory authorities and exchanges, but Hu Xijin is also the main target of condemnation. Many netizens even called on him to jump off a building as soon as possible to fulfill his promise.

On February 5, Hu Xijin showed a photo of his stock holdings on his mobile phone, showing that he had lost RMB 78,000. He lamented, if you could turn back time and have your current ideas and insights, why would you continue to invest? Hu Xijin emphasized that the current principal of more than 600,000 yuan is basically his investment limit. If he adds more, he will not be able to bear it psychologically. When he is stressed, he will "eat noodles to relieve the pressure of losing money."

Is Hu Xijin’s stock trading a personal act?

However, whether Hu Xijin attracted netizens to the stock market as a personal act or as a result of government instructions has become the focus of public debate after the stock market crash.

A netizen "Qingzhan Tumoyi" with an IP address in Guangdong on the financial website "Snowball" left a message saying: After Hu Xijin's "high-profile entry into the market , foreign capital also began to flow out at an accelerated pace . Various signs indicate that he was organized and premeditated . It may be that I'm just following orders ." However, George Magnus, a researcher at the China Center of Oxford University in the United Kingdom and former UBS chief economic analyst, said in an interview that in 2015, Xinhua News Agency, People's Daily and other media encouraged people to invest in stocks every day. Investing in stocks can make a company healthy. A healthy company will have a healthy stock market, and a healthy stock market will have a healthy economy. Compared with 2015, the traces of government operations are less obvious this time.

Chinese retail investors choose to trade in the stock market on their own, but the profit-making effect is actually not ideal. A study conducted by Columbia University professor Charles Jones and three scholars on Chinese retail investors showed that retail transactions accounted for 85% of daily trading volume; among the more than 53 million accounts from 2016 to 2019, 58.7% were less than 100,000, and 100,000 to 100,000. 500,000 accounts for 28.6%, 500,000 to 3 million accounts for 10.9%, 3 million to 10 million accounts for 1.4%, and more than 10 million only accounts for 0.4%. The study concluded that the buying and selling of accounts with less than 3 million always goes in the opposite direction to the stock holdings. Stocks rise after being sold and fall after being bought.

In addition, problems such as market imperfections, opaque information, and insider trading are also among the reasons why it is difficult for retail investors to profit from the stock market. .

At the annual meeting of NetEase economists on December 1, 2023, Liu Jipeng clearly suggested that ordinary investors should not rush into the market. Regarding the issue of institutional restructuring, our registration system is also in place, and we even have a policy to stop quantitative trading and short selling, If these systems are in place, you can let friends who are not familiar with financial knowledge enter the market." However . His criticism of the stock market immediately resulted in a ban, and his Weibo account has since been banned .

Institutional flaws in China's securities market

Institutional flaws have always been a serious criticism of China's securities market. China's securities market was established in 1990. It was originally established to finance state-owned enterprises. Later, a large number of private companies were allowed to go public. The existence of the Chinese stock market has been described as a money-trapping market "born for financing."

Cai Shenkun, a US-based financial blogger who has written books such as "Stockholders' Dictionary" and "Who Will Save China's Stock Market", pointed out that "China's stock market serves state-owned enterprises and does not bring benefits to investors."

According to statistics, among the more than 5,300 A-share listed companies, there are nearly 1,500 state-owned and central-owned enterprises; the operations of these companies cannot focus on operations and taking care of shareholder rights like Western companies. Chang Qing, one of the founders of the China Futures Market, said at the 2022 China Capital Market Forum that "state-owned enterprises do not have the final say by the board of directors, but by the party committee." Even if there are independent directors, they will not play a role.

In terms of supervision of listed private enterprises, since 2022, the two “money trapping” system designs that have been most criticized by domestic financial scholars in China are undoubtedly IPO and quantitative trading; they believe that because of these two designs, companies and investment institutions are not responsible Responsible for making money from retail investors, and ultimately causing the stock market to plummet.

Quantitative trading means that financial investment institutions use pre-written model programs to automatically trade stocks through large amounts of data analysis, thereby improving trading efficiency. He Qiang, a professor at the School of Finance at the Central University of Finance and Economics, continuously criticized quantitative trading in March 2022 for either causing the stock market to rise or fall sharply, or for the trading volume to reach trillions, but the index has barely changed, which is very harmful to retail investors who cannot use this tool.

He Qiang pointed out that quantitative trading is widely used in European and American markets, but the main investors in these markets are institutions, not retail investors. On the basis that the main investors in the Chinese market are retail investors, the extensive use of quantitative trading has made the fate of retail investors more difficult, just like "it used to be a sickle to cut leeks, but now it is a robot combine harvester to cut the leeks." He called on the China Securities Regulatory Commission to strengthen supervision and restrict the use of quantitative trading. However, the China Securities Regulatory Commission responded slowly under pressure from institutions. It was not until September 2023 that it began to promote a quantitative transaction reporting system, requiring investors to "report first, then trade"; then on February 20, 2024, the Shanghai Stock Exchange and Shenzhen Stock Exchange Announced separately that “quantitative trading regulatory arrangements will be improved.”

These companies are considered to be listed only for cash, and do not intend to use the funds raised in the capital market for corporate development. Many major shareholders of listed companies have sold their stocks through securities lending after listing, and quickly transferred their holdings. Stocks were cleared to take profits, which directly contributed to the decline in stock prices. He Qiang pointed out, "This is why the Beijing Stock Exchange has been falling all the way."

Scholars believe that the time for major shareholders, especially the top three shareholders, to liquidate their holdings should be limited. Since the beginning of spring 2024, while the government is seeking to stabilize stock prices , Wu Xiaoqiu, director of the Institute of Finance and Securities at Renmin University of China, has pointed out, "Can't IPOs be suspended?"

Liu Jipeng, who has repeatedly called for reform for many years, directly pointed out in December 2023 that China's capital market is a market with unfair wealth distribution and lack of justice since the reform and opening up.

Lin Yixiang, who participated in the drafting of the Securities Law and served as the head of the securities trading monitoring system of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, pointed out that the fundamental problem of China’s capital market is that the government’s attitude towards capital and the market has been wavering for many years, resulting in 30 years of failure to mature. “ This market has not even been characterized and finalized . ”

National security comes first

The different attitudes of national leaders towards the capital market are undoubtedly the reason why the capital market has been uncertain for many years. Unlike Zhu Rongji and Wen Jiabao, who sought to promote marketization when they were prime ministers, Xi Jinping's government emphasizes that national security is paramount, the economy is part of national security, and the capital market needs to serve national security, which makes it difficult for investors and companies to adapt.

Cai Shenkun pointed out, "In the past few years, Xi Jinping specifically mentioned in the '30 Lectures on Xi Jinping Thought for the New Era' that the capital market has actually defined the stock market. It is necessary to control or supervise the state of disorderly speculation in the capital market and limit the huge profits made by these virtual economies." The opportunity is to make huge profits from the stock market. He is firmly opposed to it and will fight back."

Taiwanese columnist "Qianlong Lai" also said in an interview with this station that Xi Jinping and his team are indeed "very disgusted with investment speculation in the financial market, and are convinced that speculation and speculation must involve huge corruption." "Qianlong Lai" also said that under the premise that Xi Jinping's government regards "anti-corruption" as the core value of the regime's survival, promoting marketization through further structural reforms is the "most fundamental value dilemma." Among the contradictions are that financial officials are directly faced with resisting pressure and rescuing the market, but at the same time they have to face the possibility that promoting the entry of state funds may lead to corruption investigations. Therefore, financial officials can only adopt "technical" measures, such as absorbing short positions, requiring state-owned enterprises to increase their purchases of treasury stocks, and the People's Bank of China continuing to cut interest rates and making administrative announcements to rescue the market.