SETTING SAIL: A Hong Kong cargo ship at the Ganyu port in east China's Jiangsu Province on December 24, 2012, the day the port opened for business (SI WEI)

Downgrading U.S.

The Chinese rating agency Dagong Global Credit Rating Co. put the local and foreign currency sovereign credit ratings of the United States on a negative watch list on December 25, 2012.

The addition to the watch list is due to the ongoing U.S. debt crisis and political deadlock in Washington.

The debt burden of the U.S. Federal Government increased 9.1 percent year on year in 2011 and 11.7 percent in 2012, far exceeding the country's nominal GDP growth rate of 3.9 percent in 2011 and 3.4 percent in 2012, Dagong said.

Dagong said that it expected the outstanding debt of the United States to rise to 104.8 percent of its GDP and 608.7 percent of its fiscal revenue by the end of 2012, indicating that its solvency is experiencing a descending trend.

"Due to the pending fiscal cliff, the U.S. economy is likely to fall into recession in 2013 and stay weak in the long term, which will further weaken the material basis for the government to repay debt," Dagong said.

Stock Delisting

The Shenzhen Stock Exchange delisted two companies on December 24, 2012, amid a push to improve its stock delisting procedures.

The bourse said in a statement that Jiangsu Chinese Online Logistics Co. Ltd. and Powerise Information Technology Co. Ltd. failed to win approval to resume trading and would be delisted.

Jiangsu Chinese Online Logistics suffered losses for three straight years from 2003 to 2005. Its trading was suspended on May 15, 2006.Powerise Information Technology saw losses from 2004 to 2006 and its trading was suspended on May 24, 2007.

In late June 2012, both the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges released programs to improve delisting rules in a bid to protect investors and promote a healthy development of the stock market.

The new rules set specific requirements concerning the stock performance of listed companies on the two bourses.

"As China's stock market becomes mature and more market-oriented, stock delisting will become an increasingly common phenomenon," according to a statement of the Shenzhen bourse.