In 2010, SOEs raked in a combined profit of 1.99 trillion yuan ($306.2 billion), skyrocketing 37.9 percent from a year ago, said the Ministry of Finance (MOF). Of this total, the central SOEs earned 1.34 trillion yuan ($206.2 billion), and the rest went to local SOEs.

Their revenues totaled 30.33 trillion yuan ($4.7 trillion), an increase of 31.1 percent year on year. The SOEs also experienced an improvement in profitability as their profit-to-sales ratio came in at 6.6 percent, compared with 6.3 percent in 2009.

The SOEs maintained growth momentum last year, with both profits and revenues doubling that of five years ago, said the MOF. Such bullishness made significant contributions to the recovery of the real economy.

But Shao Ning, Vice Chairman of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, added a note of caution.

"The enterprises will face daunting challenges this year as the monetary environment becomes tighter and costs inflation creeps up," said Shao at the 12th New Year Forum of the Guanghua School of Management of Peking University on January 16.

Li Yining, a renowned economist and Peking University professor, said SOEs should play a larger role in China's economic rebalancing by exploring global markets and making forays into emerging strategic industries such as information technology and new energies.

Wind Power Giant

As part of its efforts to curb carbon emissions, China is sparing no efforts in developing clean and renewable energy plants, as reflected in its tremendous endeavor to increase the country's wind power.

By the end of 2010, China had become the country with the most installed wind power capacity, supplanting the United States, said Li Junfeng, Secretary General of the Chinese Renewable Energy Industries Association (CREIA).

China installed 16 gigawatts (gw) of new wind power capacity in 2010, growing 62 percent year on year, making its total installed capacity 41.8 gw, said Li.

The wind power capacity installed in China in 2010 will save 31.3 million tons of coal, reducing carbon dioxide emissions by more than 90 million tons, suspended particles by nearly 33,000 tons, sulfur dioxide by 64,000 tons and nitric oxide by 60,000 tons.

The efforts will be carried on in the coming years. China will increase its cumulative grid-connected installed wind power capacity to 55 gw this year and increase its cumulative installed wind power capacity to 100 gw by 2015. By 2020, it plans to have 200 gw of installed capacity.

Dealerships Down

A foreseeable auto market slowdown in 2011 has triggered major dealer pullouts due to the termination of favorable auto purchase policies. BYD Co. Ltd., one of China's largest private automakers, has cut the number of the dealerships by 100 citing unreasonably fast growth of its sales network in the past.

The company set an ambitious goal at the beginning of 2010 to double its sales to 800,000 units, but its performance was rather disappointing last year. In the first half, the company only sold 289,000 cars. In August, it reduced its full-year goal to 600,000 units.

China has undoubtedly overtaken the United States to be the largest auto market in the world, but whether China can keep its momentum in 2011 remains a question.

In the middle of last year, a number of BYD dealers quit the company's sales network due to sluggish sales and high inventory.

BYD has greatly expanded its dealerships to more than 1,200 last year from some 600 in 2008. Wang Chuanfu, Chairman of BYD, also noted the low standard the company set in its early days when choosing dealer partners.

Warren Buffett's investment firm Berkshire Hathaway Inc. has a 10-percent share in BYD, which is traded publicly in Hong Kong.