On September 22, the State Council Information Office held a press conference in Beijing on "High-Quality Completion of the 14th Five-Year Plan" series. People's Bank of China Governor Pan Gongsheng, National Financial Regulatory Administration Director Li Yunze, China Securities Regulatory Commission Chairman Wu Qing, and People's Bank of China Deputy Governor and State Administration of Foreign Exchange Director Zhu Hexin introduced the development of the financial industry during the 14th Five-Year Plan period and answered questions from reporters.

At the conference, CSRC Chairman Wu Qing presented the development of China's capital market during the 14th Five-Year Plan period. Here are the key highlights.

**A-Share Market Resilience and Risk Resistance Significantly Enhanced, Tech Content Further Improved**

Wu Qing stated at the State Council Information Office press conference that among newly listed companies in recent years, over 90% are technology companies or enterprises with high technological content. Wu pointed out that the market capitalization ratio of A-share technology sectors has exceeded one-quarter, significantly higher than the combined financial and real estate sectors (including banks, non-bank financial institutions, and real estate companies). Among the top 50 companies by market value, technology enterprises increased from 18 at the end of the 13th Five-Year Plan to 24 currently.

**Capital Market Achieves Steady Quantitative Growth and Effective Qualitative Improvement**

Wu mentioned that during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, listed companies distributed "red packets" totaling over 10.6 trillion yuan through dividends and buybacks, an increase of over 80% compared to the 13th Five-Year Plan, equivalent to 2.07 times the amount of stock IPOs and refinancing during the same period. Meanwhile, the A-share market's resilience and risk resistance significantly strengthened during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, with the Shanghai Composite Index's annualized volatility at 15.9%, down 2.8 percentage points from the 13th Five-Year Plan.

Wu expressed that during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, China's capital market achieved steady quantitative growth and effective qualitative improvement, laying a solid foundation for high-quality development in the 15th Five-Year Plan. These achievements are inseparable from the joint efforts and strong support of all relevant parties, market participants, and especially investors.

**Enhanced Market Stability and Reduced Volatility**

Facing unexpected risk challenges, under the unified deployment of the Party Central Committee and State Council, the CSRC coordinated with various parties and relevant market participants to strengthen policy hedging, capital hedging, and expectation hedging, effectively preventing significant market volatility and systemic risks. During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, the A-share market's resilience and risk resistance significantly enhanced, with the Shanghai Composite Index's annualized volatility at 15.9%, down 2.8 percentage points from the 13th Five-Year Plan.

**Strengthened Enforcement Actions**

During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, the CSRC imposed administrative penalties in 2,214 cases involving financial fraud, market manipulation, and insider trading, with fines and confiscations totaling 41.4 billion yuan, representing increases of 58% and 30% respectively compared to the 13th Five-Year Plan. Enforcement deterrence has been further strengthened, transparency improved, and market ecology purified.

**M&A Reform Progress**

Wu stated that since the release of the "Six M&A Rules," 230 major asset restructuring cases have been disclosed, strongly supporting listed companies' industrial integration.

The CSRC has adhered to market-oriented, rule-of-law-based, and internationalized principles, launching a series of landmark reform and opening-up measures with strong traction and high value. Investment-side reforms have achieved major breakthroughs, with the reform effects of "attracting long-term capital and promoting long-term investment" accelerating. By the end of August this year, various types of medium and long-term funds held approximately 21.4 trillion yuan in A-share tradable market value, a significant 32% increase from the end of the 13th Five-Year Plan.

**Institutional Improvements and Market Exit**

The institutional mechanisms for promoting high-quality development of listed companies have been continuously improved, adhering to the dual-wheel drive of information disclosure and corporate governance, broadening diversified exit channels, and strictly clearing out "bad apples" and "shell zombies." During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, 207 companies have smoothly delisted.

**International Opening and Foreign Investment**

The high-level institutional opening of capital markets has steadily expanded, with orderly promotion of bidirectional opening of markets, products, and institutions. Foreign holdings of A-share market value currently stand at 3.4 trillion yuan, while 269 enterprises are listed overseas. China's capital market "circle of friends" continues to grow.

**Enhanced Appeal of Chinese Assets**

Since the September 26 Central Political Bureau meeting last year, comprehensive packages of fiscal, financial, and industrial policies with great intensity and beyond expectations have expanded and enhanced effectiveness, favorably promoting stable development of capital markets. Technology innovation and industrial innovation have accelerated integration, with a batch of phenomenal technology enterprises and innovative products emerging. The capital market's "1+N" policy system has accelerated implementation and effectiveness. Under the combined effect of various factors, the appeal of Chinese assets has significantly strengthened.

**Risk Management and Investor Protection**

Wu emphasized strengthening regulatory defenses and strictly guarding risk bottom lines. The CSRC has resolutely maintained stable market operation, implemented "four early" requirements, strengthened comprehensive monitoring and early warning, improved cross-market, cross-sector, and cross-border risk prevention and control mechanisms, and strengthened counter-cyclical adjustments.

The CSRC has steadily promoted continuous convergence of risks in key areas, adhering to strict control of increments, stable reduction of stocks, and strict prevention of "explosions." The bond default rate in exchange markets has remained at a relatively low level of around 1%. Private fund risk remediation has progressed solidly, with approximately 7,000 zombie institutions completing clearance.

Regulatory enforcement effectiveness and deterrence have been significantly enhanced, focusing on financial fraud and other illegal and irregular issues that investors deeply detest. The CSRC has systematically constructed a comprehensive, three-dimensional punishment and prevention system, resolutely breaking up fraud "ecosystems." For bond market debt fraud, Evergrande Real Estate and its auditing institutions were issued the largest fines in history of 4.175 billion yuan and 325 million yuan respectively.

Over the past five years, more than 700 cases and leads have been transferred to public security organs, with a number of responsible persons being seriously pursued for criminal responsibility according to law.

**Investor Protection Network**

The investor protection "safety net" has been strengthened and tightened, with successive improvements to regulatory rules for share reduction, quantitative trading, and securities lending. A series of systems including advance compensation, party commitments, and mandatory buybacks for fraudulent issuance have been promoted. Clear regulatory requirements such as "liability upon declaration" and intermediary institution practice quality evaluation have been established.

In recent years, the first special representative litigation case, Kangmei Pharmaceutical, compensated investors approximately 2.46 billion yuan. Unisplendour Corporation Storage and Zeda Yisheng cases compensated investors 1.09 billion yuan and 280 million yuan respectively. A batch of landmark cases have been implemented through joint efforts of all parties, improving the quality and effectiveness of protecting investors' legitimate rights and interests.