The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) has also set up a Ministry of People's Armed Forces, and this will be the first financial enterprise in China's financial system to set up a Ministry of People's Armed Forces, which is of a different significance. What signal does this send?
Recently, the unveiling ceremony of the People's Armed Forces Department of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Qinghai Branch was held in Xining, Qinghai. This marks the official establishment of the first People's Armed Forces Department of a Chinese financial institution, which is of great significance.
In fact, not only ICBC, but also at least Dongguan Water Group, Dongguan Energy Investment Group, Dongguan Communications Investment Group, Dongshi Group, Wuhan Metro Group, Wuhan Urban Investment Group, China Power Construction Equipment Group, Shanghai Urban Investment Group and many other local state-owned enterprises have successively established the People's Armed Forces Department.
So the question is, why have so many central and state-owned enterprises recently begun to set up the People's Armed Forces Department? What is the underlying logic behind it? What signal does this send?
In my opinion, it is inseparable from the consideration of two reasons.
First, protect the security of state-owned assets at a time when the international situation is treacherous. I think this factor should be a very deep-seated reason why so many state-owned enterprises have begun to set up the Ministry of People's Armed Forces.
As we all know, the international situation has changed in recent years, geopolitical conflicts are becoming more and more common, and the Russian-Ukrainian war has not ended since its sudden outbreak.
Last year, it was Hamas that suddenly launched the Al-Aqsa flood operation that shocked the world, which led to the increasingly fierce Israeli-Kazakhstan conflict, and even recently directly led to a direct head-on conflict between Israel and Iran, almost igniting the entire powder keg in the Middle East.
Moreover, the most important thing is that the economic, trade, scientific, technological, and financial wars between the two big countries, China and the United States, are becoming more and more obvious, and all this shows that the current international situation is very complicated, and if we are not careful, the flames of war will ignite.
Therefore, in this context, it is imperative for the relevant institutions of state-owned asset management to set up the People's Assembly Department to fulfill national defense obligations and strengthen national defense construction. Taking 10,000 steps back, if the situation changes, the Ministry of People's Armed Forces will still be able to play a role in protecting state-owned assets. This is one of them.
Second, solve the problem of resettlement and employment of some veterans. This should be a very objective and realistic factor to consider. In recent years, affected by the mask incident, real estate, as a pillar industry of the national economy and people's livelihood, has ushered in an unprecedented major adjustment, coupled with the fact that some countries led by the United States have launched an all-round suppression and containment of China's economy, trade, science and technology, etc., resulting in a very large pressure on our country's economic growth in the past two years. This should be an indisputable objective fact.
At the same time, the debt pressure of various local governments has also increased sharply, and the finances are even more stretched, in this context, the resettlement of retired soldiers has become a very real problem. Because according to the past practice, veterans are generally arranged in administrative units or public institutions, and their benefits are paid by the treasury.
Therefore, in the context of the current financial pressure of local governments, how to ensure the employment of retired servicemen is a very real problem. However, because local state-owned enterprises or central enterprises are market-oriented enterprises, they are legal persons with the goal of making profits, and their general financial status is quite good. At this time, the establishment of the People's Armed Forces Department in these state-owned enterprises and the placement of some retired servicemen for employment is a very good measure and means.
Therefore, there are practical and profound reasons why so many state-owned enterprises have suddenly set up people's armed forces departments recently.