華潤董事長宋林被免職顯示反腐行動擴大

The Communist Party ousted the senior officer of one of China's largest state-owned enterprises, suggesting its anticorruption campaign--which has already rattled upper echelons of the national leadership--is spilling into new sectors.

中國共產黨免去了中國最大國有企業之一的一位高管職位，表明其反腐行動正蔓延到新的領域。這場反腐行動已經撼動了國家領導層的高層。

Last week, the Communist Party's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection accused China Resources Chairman Song Lin of unspecified 'suspected serious violations of discipline and law,' phrasing Chinese authorities typically use in reference to corruption. The party on Saturday said it removed him from the conglomerate.

上週，中共中央紀律檢查委員會（簡稱：中紀委）宣佈華潤集團(China Resources)董事長宋林“涉嫌嚴重違紀違法”，中國當局通常用這種說法指代腐敗行爲。中共上週六說，宋林已被免職。

The firing followed allegations by a reporter for a newspaper owned by the government news agency Xinhua that Mr. Song abused his power in corporate dealings, for instance by personally benefiting from a coal mine acquisition.

相關閱讀專欄：習近平的反腐難題在此之前，中國官方通訊社新華社下屬報紙的一名記者舉報宋林在公司交易中濫用權力，例如從一個煤礦收購交易中謀取私利。

Before his dismissal, Mr. Song last week defended his reputation in a statement that dismissed the reporter's allegations as 'pure fabrication and malicious slander.' Mr. Song's whereabouts were unknown but he is believed to be in the hands of party investigators, who routinely detain suspects without formal charges and deny them access to lawyers.

在被免職前，宋林上週發表聲明爲自己的聲譽辯護，說那位記者的指控純屬捏造和惡意誹謗。宋林下落不明，但據信他被黨內調查人員控制，黨內調查人員經常在沒有正式提起指控的情況下扣留嫌疑人，且不讓他們會見律師。

China Resources, a Hong Kong-based trading conglomerate with $64.5 billion in turnover last year, according to the company, is one of 113 business groups directly owned by China's central government.

據華潤集團信息顯示，該公司是總部位於香港的一家貿易集團，去年營業額爲645億美元。華潤集團是中國中央政府直屬的113家企業集團之一。

The shake-up illustrates how China's massive state-owned enterprises represent a crossroads of commerce and politics, according to some analysts. They doubt professional misdeeds by Mr. Song fully explain his removal by the party, which has full discretion to appoint heads of its major companies.

一些分析人士認爲，這次人事地震顯示出中國龐大的國有企業成了商業和政治的交集。分析人士懷疑，宋林的瀆職行爲並不能完全解釋他爲何被中共免職，中國主要國企的負責人由中共全權任命。

'This is not only about anticorruption, but also involves power struggle, ' said Zhao Xiao, an economics professor at Beijing University of Science and Technology who formerly ran a research arm of the government agency that manages China Resources and the other 112 business groups, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission.

Bloomberg News華潤集團董事長宋林因涉嫌違紀違法被免去職務。北京科技大學經濟學教授趙曉稱，這不僅關乎反腐，還涉及到權力鬥爭。趙曉曾是國務院國有資產監督管理委員會（簡稱：國資委）下屬一個研究機構的負責人。國資委負責管理華潤集團和其他112家企業集團。

Mr. Song's removal likely represents a new chapter in the president's corruption campaign, some analysts say, expecting other current or retired senior politicians will be affected by the shake-up.

一些分析人士表示，宋林被免職可能代表習近平的反腐行動進入了新的一章，預計其他現任或退休高層官員將會受到此次洗牌的影響。

'When one falls, it signals the whole faction is affected,' said Xi Li, an expert on China's state-owned enterprises at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

香港科技大學(Hong Kong University of Science and Technology)中國國有企業問題專家李系稱，一名官員落馬意味着整個派系將受到影響。

Until recently, party investigators appeared to focus on China's petroleum industry by detaining on suspicion of corruption oil company executives and tycoons connected to the business. In several cases, those people enjoyed ties to former oil man Zhou Yongkang, who retired from the Politburo Standing Committee during the 2012 party leadership. Mr. Zhou hasn't been named in those investigations, and he couldn't be reached to comment.

直到最近，中共調查人員似乎一直專注於中國的石油行業，拘捕了多名涉嫌腐敗的石油企業高管和與石油行業有關的企業巨頭。在一些案件中，被拘者與前石油業高層周永康有關。2012年，周永康卸任中共中央政治局常委。這些調查並未提到周永康的名字，記者無法聯繫到他置評。

'The change in leadership at [China Resources] shows that the anticorruption campaign is spreading to the SOEs,' said Mr. Zhao. 'Any high-level personnel change has a complicated political background.'

趙曉表示，華潤集團領導層的調整顯示出反腐行動正在擴大到國有企業。他還說，任何高層人事變動都有着複雜的政治背景。

In the past, surgical removals sparked by Chinese party politics have done little damage to the workings of large business groups. Though exceptionally powerful, business figures like Mr. Song tend to be easily replaced, analysts said.

過去，中國黨派政治引發的清洗對大型企業集團的運作損害微乎其微。分析人士表示，儘管像宋林這樣的企業高層影響力很大，但通常很容易被替換。

'There's a system in place, not just one person,' said the SOE specialist, Mr. Li. The party's appointee draws his position from patronage, Mr. Li said, and the task is to engage with state leaders and safeguard government assets, not maximize business profits.

李系表示，國企運行有一套機制，並不只是由一個人掌控。李系說，國企負責人由中共任免，其任務是貫徹國家領導人的指示，維護國有資產，而不是使企業利潤最大化。

China Resources appointed an interim chairman who said this is 'a very serious time.' Share prices of several listed units fell in Hong Kong on Tuesday, including China Resources Enterprise Ltd., ended down about 4%, as trading resumed after a holiday and following the announcement of the party's investigation into Mr. Song on Thursday.

華潤集團任命了一位臨時董事長，他表示，集團正面臨非常嚴峻的時刻。週二香港股市在長假後恢復交易，受上週四宋林遭調查消息影響，華潤系股票下跌，其中華潤創業(China Resources Enterprise Ltd. )收盤下挫約4%。

In China's system, SOEs can be a proving ground, with executives sometimes moving on to political positions. Two of the seven members of the current Politburo Standing Committee rose through SOEs.

在中國的機制下，國有企業往往成爲一個試驗場，國企高管有時能夠步入政壇擔任高級職務。目前七名政治局常委中就有兩位來自國企。

Wang Qishan, whose responsibilities include the party's anticorruption wing that is investigating Mr. Song, hails from the banking industry. The other, Zhang Gaoli, worked in the oil industry.

目前主管反腐敗工作的王岐山就是提拔自銀行業高管崗位。另一位常委張高麗曾在石油行業工作。

Mr. Song, by contrast, spent his career at China Resources, a conglomerate that predates the party's control of China. Formed in 1938 and previously known as Hong Kong's Liow & Co. it was initially credited with raising money for weapons for Chinese to fight Japanese forces. Today, China Resources has 420,000 employees and holdings in everything from property, power, retail, pharmaceuticals and beer.

相比之下，宋林一直就職於華潤集團，這是一家在共產黨取得政權之前就已成立的企業集團。華潤集團成立於1938年，前身是香港聯和行(Liow & Co)，當初爲抗日根據地籌集資金購買軍需物資。今天，華潤集團已擁有員工42萬人，業務範圍遍及房地產、電力、零售、醫藥和啤酒等各個領域。

Mr. Song, known as Charley, joined China Resources after earning a mechanical engineering degree in college in 1985. He climbed through posts in the asset management, petrochemical, power and retail divisions of the vast China-focused company.

英文名叫Charley的宋林1985年從大學畢業獲得機械工程學學位後加盟華潤集團。他在這個以國內業務爲主的龐大企業中不斷升遷，工作過的部門包括資產管理、石化、電力和零售等。

An early mentor was the current head of Chinese state-owned grain trader Cofco Corp., Ning Gaoning, a celebrated executive. In press interviews, Mr. Song embraced market economics--'heads have to roll for poor business decisions'--and he won appointment to corporate boards and honorary positions, including one advising Hong Kong's anticorruption agency. Mr. Song took the leadership of China Resources around five years ago.

宋林當年的老領導是現任中國國有糧食貿易公司中糧集團(COFCO Corporation)董事長、知名企業管理人士寧高寧。宋林信奉市場經濟學──“若商業決策失當，負責人必須承擔責任，接受解聘”，他還獲聘其他一些企業的董事及榮譽職位，包括擔任香港反腐機構的道德委員會負責人。宋林大概從5年前開始擔任華潤集團董事長一職。

The top positions at other big SOEs changed during China's once-in-a-decade leadership succession in late 2012. New faces appeared at the helm of arms maker China Poly Group, builder China Railway Construction Corp., energy producer China General Nuclear Power Group and metals maker Sinosteel Corp.

2012年底中國政府換屆期間，許多央企的領導也紛紛換人。軍工企業中國保利集團公司(China Poly Group co.)、建築公司中國鐵建股份有限公司(China Railway Construction Co., 簡稱：中國鐵建)、能源企業中國廣核集團(China General Nuclear Power Group)和冶金企業中鋼集團公司(Sinosteel Corp.)的領導班子均出現了新面孔。

In all, the party replaced its top officer at 15% the biggest 113 SOEs between 2012 and 2013, affecting 17 groups in all, according to calculations by The Wall Street Journal.

根據《華爾街日報》的統計，2012年至2013年間，中國113家央企中有15%更換了一把手，共涉及17家集團公司。

Still, U.S. companies may have changed chief executives more often. In the same two years, 90 companies, or 17% of the constituents of the S&P 500 index of the biggest U.S. business, changed CEOs, according to a tally by management consultant Spencer Stuart.

不過，美國企業更換首席執行長的頻率可能更高。管理諮詢公司史賓沙(Spencer Stuart (BIV) Ltd.)的統計數據顯示，同樣是在2012年至2013年間，標準普爾500指數成份股公司中有90家更換了CEO，比例爲17%。

'The senior leadership of SOEs is arranged by the party,' says Louis Kuijs, China chief economist at RBS Markets in Hong Kongand a former World Bank specialist in Beijing. He says party control may help China coordinate its industrial policy, but appears unusual from a western perspective.

RBS Markets中國首席經濟學家、前世界銀行(World Bank)駐北京專家高路易(Louis Kuijs)稱，中國央企高管是由中共一手安排的，這可能有助於政府協調行業政策，但從西方觀點來看，這種做法並不正常。

Among the recent personnel changes in China, the party assigned the head of a railway equipment maker to the helm of a solar panel business, and a metal-maker's chief to a tourism business, though he was demoted 16 months later. In past changes, the party has swapped top managers between airlines and telephone companies; three years ago, Beijing shuffled senior executives among the country's three biggest oil companies, in one case replacing a man appointed party chief of a province.

在中國國企近期的高層人事調整中，一家鐵路設備製造企業的負責人被調任一家光伏企業的負責人；一家冶金企業的領導人被調任一家旅遊公司的領導人，不過16個月後此人被降職。在過去的人事調整中，航空公司和電信公司的領導人曾經出現過對調；三年前，中國三大石油巨頭的高管被大挪移，部分職位互換，其中一人還被調任某省擔任省委副書記。

James T. Areddy / Laurie Burkitt

James T. Areddy / Laurie Burkitt