Summary in Plain Language
This news report highlights the widespread chaos during the 2026 A-share mid-year reporting season: on one hand, there are mining giants like Zijin Mining, which earn nearly 40 billion yuan annually and record historic profits; on the other hand, numerous listed companies made absurd errors in their announcements that were almost laughable. These included mistaking the county government for the “Renminbi government,” misstating the age of the chairman’s son by 7 years, overestimating outsourcing costs to the point where workers could earn 280,000 yuan per hour and immediately buy a BMW, and even simply misspelling the word “securities.” These mistakes were not due to employee negligence; many persisted for five to six years despite multiple changes in auditors and management. The root cause is that companies relied on outdated templates and followed procedures without any real care. On average, 60 listed companies made such obvious errors each month.
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Detailed Explanation
1. How absurd were these errors?
None of the mistakes were hidden in obscure financial figures; they were all basic errors that would make you laugh upon first sight:
- Zijin Mining’s mistake with “Renminbi government” appeared in its 2020 annual report. Despite changing auditors and two secretaries over the next six years, and even with the company’s founder stepping down after 30 years at the helm, the error remained in the 2026 semi-annual report.
- Xingyu Shares went even further: the vice chairman (the chairman’s son) was mistakenly reported to be 27 years older, making his 58-year-old mother only 7 years older than him, which is impossible. Later, it was discovered that the outsourcing costs were overstated by a factor of ten thousand, implying workers could earn 280,000 yuan per hour—equivalent to buying a BMW 3 Series—when the company’s annual revenue was only 13.2 billion yuan. The misstatement of outsourcing costs was 184 times its actual amount.
- Other companies made a variety of similar errors: Lixun Precision and several other leading firms misspelled “securities” as “证劵”; some included non-existent dates like June 31st in their announcements; and some even wrote “total临” instead of “director.”
2. Why couldn’t these errors be caught during the six review processes?
According to the China Securities Regulatory Commission, a formal company announcement goes through six review stages: the drafting department conducts a self-check, the finance department verifies the data, the secretary for directors ensures compliance, the audit committee reviews it, all directors sign off, and finally, the accounting firm audits and stamps it. In theory, even if one person misses something, the others should catch it.
- In reality, the entire process was flawed due to a common practice of copying existing templates. Almost all companies used previous year’s Word documents, simply updating the revenue and date numbers, and sometimes even copying announcements from other companies with minor changes. For example, Tibet Zhufeng directly copied a PDF, mistaking the secretary’s name. Many of these errors spread from one company’s template to dozens of others.
3. Don’t use “typical typos” as an excuse; the whole process is a formality
When companies faced issues, they often blamed typists or careless staff. However, such persistent and egregious errors cannot be explained by carelessness. Zijin Mining, for instance, hired top-tier auditors for millions to verify its financials; they surely would have noticed such a obvious mistake. The new management promised to improve management, yet the error remained. This shows that everyone treated the review process as a formality, with no one truly reviewing the content.
4. With 60 companies making mistakes each month, this is a typical issue of the expanded A-share market
There are now over 5,500 listed companies, with more than 100 new ones added each year. Each company issues dozens of announcements. Small companies often have only a few staff members, and during the busy reporting periods, they focus on meeting deadlines rather than checking every detail. The priority is to release announcements on time, not their accuracy.
- More importantly, these minor errors, which do not involve financial fraud, have virtually no consequences. Companies rarely face fines or corrections, so they are not taken seriously, leading to a cycle of repeated mistakes.
5. These seemingly trivial errors actually harm ordinary investors
Many investors think these are just minor issues that don’t affect financial data. But if a company that prepares official announcements for millions of investors is so sloppy, how can you trust the accuracy of its financial reports? If they can afford top auditors and still make such basic mistakes, why should you trust their revenue and profit figures? Once these errors become widespread, they can have serious consequences for individual investors. Regulators are now taking action to address this problem, aiming to stop this formality-driven culture, as it undermines the trust in the capital market.