China Tests Two New Air fields in South China Sea

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The number of airfields open to civil aircraft in the archipelago amounts to three

china successfully tested two new airfields on the Nansha Islands with civil flights， bring the number of airfields open to civil aircraft in the archipelago to three.

A flight took off from Haikou， capital of south china’s Hainan Province， at 8：30 a.m. and landed on Meiji Reef two hours later， while another took off from Haikou at 8：40 a.m. and landed on Zhubi Reef at 10：28 a.m..

The two flights， an Airbus A319 chartered by China Southern Airlines and a Boeing 737 by Hainan Airlines， both returned to Haikou after a short stay on the reefs.

The round trips came one day after a Cessna CE-680 flew to the two reefs to ensure that both airfields are prepared for civil flights.

Including the airport on the Yongshu Reef opened in January， China now has three functioning airports on the Nansha Islands， which lie under one of the world’s busiest airspaces.

In addition to the airports， there are four multi-purpose lighthouses on Huay- ang， Chigua， Zhubi and Yongshu reefs， while the construction of a fifth on Meiji Reef is nearing completion， according to the Ministry of Transportation.

Two State-owned Travel Firms Merge to Form a Tourism Giant

The state assets supervisor said it has approved the merger of two stateowned travel operators that will lead to the formation of a tourism giant with combined assets worth over 120 billion yuan， or nearly US$18 billion.

The Beijing-based China International Travel Service Group Co. （CITS） will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of China National Travel Service （HK） Group Co. （HKCTS）， one of the top three travel companies in the country in terms of assets， the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission said on its website on July 11.This was followed by confirmations from the three listed companies involved， one under CITS and two under HKCTS， which released the news in their filings to the stock exchanges.

The share prices of the three companies， CITS Corporation Limited， CTS International Logistics Corporation Limited， and China Travel International Investment Hong Kong Limited all rose on July 12， by 1.35 percent， 0.38 percent， and 7.42 percent， respectively.

The two listed companies under HKCTS has assets worth more than 100 billion yuan， or five times that of CITS Corp， and the holding company has businesses in several industries including tourism， hospitality， food， property， logistics， finance， and power.

The companies first revealed their plans to merge on February 23.

In recent years， several state-owned enterprises have decided to merge because they were facing losses. This includes the deals between train makers China CNR Corp Ltd and China CSR Corp Ltd， electricity producers China Power Investment Co. and State Nuclear Power Technology Co.， and mining companies China Minmetals Corporation and China Metallurgical Group. The profits of all state-owned enterprises declined 6.7 percent in 2015， the Ministry of Fi- nance said.

Weaker Yuan helps in the Panda Bond Sales Surge in First Half

The value of panda bonds issued in the first six months of 2016 was more than double that issued in the whole of last year due to a fall in financing costs， but barriers including regulatory uncertainties on capital repatriation have kept potential issuers away from the market， JPMorgan Chase & Co. Said.

From January to July 5， the amount of panda bonds， or yuan-denominated bonds issued by foreign entities on the mainland market， reached 29 billion yuan， according to a report published last week by the financial services provider. Only 12 billion yuan worth of bonds were sold last year and less than 5 billion yuan worth of bonds were issued each year from 2005， when the market was established， to 2014， the report showed.

Meanwhile， the value of yuandenominated bonds sold in the Hong Kong market， known as dim sum bonds， totaled 47 billion yuan in the first five months of the year， the report says. Last year， 169 billion yuan worth of dim sum bonds were sold.

Issuance of panda bonds picked up pace since late 2015， after the International Monetary Fund decided to include the yuan in its Special Drawing Right basket， boosting global investors’confidence in the Chinese currency. This prompted foreign governments such as South Korea and the Canadian province of British Columbia， and international firms like Standard Chartered Bank Hong Kong Ltd. to tap the mainland debt market.

A weaker yuan and a decline in the average yield of Chinese bonds by over 150 basis points over the past two years due to weaker economic conditions has made it cheaper to raise funds through panda bonds， the report says. Market expectations for the yuan to continue depreciating against the U.S. dollar has kept the dollar-yuan cross currency swap rates at relatively high levels， favoring foreign issuers that need to convert the proceeds from bond sales into dollar.

PBOC Issues New Regulations on Ensuring the Safety of Online Payments

The central bank has tightened regulations governing third-party payment services， requiring them to conduct multiple identity checks on users and adopt a technology that can better prevent leaks of private bankcard information.

The People’s Bank of China （PBOC） extended a deadline to November 1 for third-party payment services such as Alibaba’s Alipay to provide at least two methods to verify a user’s identity before making an online payment， the central bank said in a recent document viewed by Caixin that was distributed to banks and companies licensed to process online payments.

At present， when users make a payment through a third-party payment service， they need to enter a password and a one-time confirmation code sent to their mobile phones to verify their identity. The central bank issued a guideline in December telling these companies to start providing more than one method to verify a user’s identity before July 1， but a Caixin reporter found that most services had not changed their authentication process even after the deadline had lapsed.

The new regulation also requires payment companies to use a technology called “tokenization” starting December 1. Earlier a user’s bankcard information was held by a third-party payment service， but after this new security standard takes effect， China’s bankcard association， or UnionPay， would embed credit or debit card information entered by users in a secure digital token， according to the document.

Market analysts say this approach is one of the most effective ways to protect personal information submitted when making online payments because a user’s bank information has been encrypted and stored in a digital token instead of saving it on a computer or mobile phone.

It is said that this technology was developed by EMVCo， an organization established by credit card networks that set standards for the industry globally. If payment companies fail to meet requirements as per the deadlines given in the new guidelines， the PBOC will warn these companies and eventually revoke their licenses， the document said.