使用中國太空科技集團的「亞太七號」

改革削太子黨利益
國企須上繳三成盈利還富於民 

【三中全會透視】
中共十八屆三中全會落幕，印證了未來中國改革方向「重經濟 疏政改」。即使是習、李誓言旦旦要「殺出血路」的經濟改革，也面臨利益集團重重阻滯。據本報獲悉，三中全會決定向國企徵收盈利的30%，還富於民。有學者 認為此舉將觸動國企裏眾太子黨的利益，能否推行值得觀察。也有分析員指，該政策隨時痛擊國企背後龐大利益，令低迷的國企股更積弱。

前日三中全會發佈會議公報一如預期，只綱領性地提到未來改革方向，無具體內容。據知情者指，會議通過的《中共中央關於全面深化改革若干重大問題的決定》 （下稱決定）長達四、五萬字，還有眾多配套文件供與會者參考討論。據悉《決定》正在中共黨內層層傳達，稍後對外公佈。涉各部門的改革措施將陸續由各部門發 佈。

茅于軾：涉利益集團難推動

知情者對《蘋果》透露，三中全會通過國企改革方案，要求國企與民分利，增加其上繳利潤。目前，除在海內外的上市公司，除必須將集資所得的10%上繳社保基 金外，據悉當局決定國企要將每年利潤的30%撥歸有關基金。這一目標要在2020年達成。但有關基金是否指社保基金，有待揭盅。
數據顯示，去年全國500強國企的總營收44.9萬億元（人民幣．下同），實現盈利2.1萬億元，但去年國企上繳利潤僅900億元，且九成又返還給企業用於發展。而參考中石油、工商銀行等十大上市國企去年的業績，其盈利高達14,118億港元。
由 於眾太子黨掌控國企各領域，北京理工大學經濟學教授胡星斗指，三中全會要對國企開刀，無疑從太子黨口中搶蛋糕，阻力不小。內地經濟學家茅于軾認為，因涉及 龐大的利益集團，國企改革難度大。他說，上市國企董事長和高管都是政府委派，並非股東會選出，他們的年薪動輒數百萬元，甚至千萬元。他們與政府互相勾結， 要改革談何容易。
AMTD證券業務部總經理鄧聲興表示，倘若徵收三成盈利對於國企股的影響，要視乎中央以何種模式執行。例如中央以差異性徵稅方式還富於民，等於是懲罰其他 股東，會對上市國企股價帶來很大衝擊。相反，如果費用是向國企的非上市母企收取，則對上市的國企股價影響不大，甚至有機會迫使國企增加派息。
平安 證券首席分析師羅曉鳴指，如果是通過上市公司進行，等於變相強制派息，但由於目前不少上市國企派息比率已經超過30%，即使方案落實，對國企現金流影響不 大。不過股東可分派利潤無疑減少，或對股價構成不利。

國企壟斷　百姓感不公

復旦大學經濟研究所教授楊宇光指，學界於早前已參與向國企徵款回饋社會的研究，並認為徵收30%是可接受的額度︰「最初是說要徵收35%的，學者們都認 為，國有企業大多是壟斷行業，每年都獲取大筆利潤，而且不時有國企領導貪腐的新聞傳出，老百姓早已覺得不公平……30%絕不為過。」
《蘋果》記者

掌控國企部份太子黨

中移動副總裁李慧鏑
‧父親為前政治局常委李長春
中銀國際控股有限公司執行總裁李彤
‧父親為前政治局常委李長春
中電國際董事長李小琳
‧父親為前總理李鵬
光大集團執行董事副總經理吳少華
‧父親為前中紀委書記吳官正
中國衞星通信集團董事長溫雲松
‧父親是前總理溫家寶
上海汽車集團副總裁吳磊
‧父親為前全國人大委員長吳邦國
中信產業投資基金首席執行官劉樂飛
‧父親為中共政治局常委劉雲山
保利集團紀委書記王小朝
‧已故國家主席楊尚昆女婿
中國國際金融公司首席執行官朱雲來
‧父親為前總理朱鎔基

汪峰成三中全會受害者

【點滴】
「誰是三中全會的受害者？」答案是內地歌手汪峰。他每一次重要時 刻，總有其他新聞搶佔報紙頭版。汪9月透露結束第二段婚姻時，適逢王菲與李亞鵬夫婦宣佈離婚；上周，當眾向章子怡示愛那晚，卻遇上恆大奪亞冠盃。前日網上 瘋傳汪峰和章子怡已結婚，又遇上三中全會閉幕。

跌市1.83%作獻禮？

【點滴】
內地股市昨出現奇特現象：滬綜指急跌1.83%，恰巧與「十八屆三 中全會」的三個數字脗合，被網民取笑為向「十八屆三中全會」獻禮。深成指亦跌2.03%，有股民譏諷：「是不是意味着要等二十屆三中全會，國家才有轉 機？」

2013年4月29日，美國共和黨議員邁克‧羅傑斯（Mike Rogers）發表聲明，質疑美軍非洲司令部選擇中國商業衛星為美軍提供通信服務，將嚴重威脅美國情報安全。根據《連線》（Wired）雜誌，美國國防部表示，使用中國太空科技集團的「亞太七號」（Apstar-7）的決定，是基於「獨特的頻寬和地理需求」，且沒有其它衛星公司能「覆蓋更廣泛的地理範圍」。國防部高層官員也指出，「亞太七號」是支持目前美軍「行動需要」的唯一選項。

Pentagon Paying China — Yes, China — To Carry Data

Updated 5/2 9:44 a.m.
The Pentagon is so starved for bandwidth that it’s paying a Chinese satellite firm to help it communicate and share data.
U.S. troops operating on the African continent are now using the recently-launched Apstar-7 satellite to keep in touch and share information. And the $10 million, one-year deal lease — publicly unveiled late last week during an ordinarily-sleepy Capitol Hill subcommittee hearing — has put American politicians and policy-makers in bit of a bind. Over the last several years, the U.S. government has publicly and loudly expressed its concern that too much sensitive American data passes through Chinese electronics — and that those electronics could be sieves for Beijing’s intelligence services. But the Pentagon says it has no other choice than to use the Chinese satellite. The need for bandwidth is that great, and no other satellite firm provides the continent-wide coverage that the military requires.
“That bandwidth was available only on a Chinese satellite,” Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy Doug Loverro told a House Armed Services Committee panel, in remarks first reported by InsideDefense.com. “We recognize that there is concerns across the community on the usage of Chinese satellites to support our warfighter. And yet, we also recognize that our warfighters need support, and sometimes we must go to the only place that we can get it from.”
The Apstar-7 is operated by Hong Kong-based APT Satellite Holdings Ltd. One of that company’s largest shareholders is the state-controlled China Satellite Communication Company, which counts the son of former Chinese premier Wen Jiabao as its chairman. But the Pentagon insists that any data passed through the Apstar-7 is protected from any potential eavesdropping by Beijing. The satellite uplinks and downlinks are encrypted, and unspecified “additional transmission security” procedures cover the data in transit, according to Lt. Col. Damien Pickart, a Defense Department spokesperson.
“We reviewed all the security concerns, all of the business concerns with such a lease,” Loverro said. “And so from that perspective, I’m very pleased with what we did. And yet, I think the larger issue is we don’t have a clear policy laid out on how do we assess whether or not we want to do this as a department, as opposed to just a response to a need.”
Every new drone feed and every new soldier with a satellite radio creates more appetite for bandwidth — an appetite the military can’t hope to fill with military spacecraft alone. To try to keep up, the Pentagon has leased bandwidth from commercial carriers for more than a decade. And the next decade should bring even more commercial deals; in March, the Army announced it was looking for new satellite firms to help troops in Afghanistan communicate. According to a 2008 Intelligence Science Board study (.pdf) — one of the few public reports on the subject — demand for satellite communications could grow from about 30 gigabits per second to 80 gigabits a decade from now.
The Chinese are poised to help fill that need — especially over Africa, where Beijing has deep business and strategic interests. In 2012, China for the first time launched more rockets into space than the U.S. – including the Chinasat 12 and Apstar-7 communications satellites.
Relying on Chinese companies could be a problematic solution to the bandwidth crunch, however. U.S. officials have in recent years publicly accused Chinese telecommunications firms of being, in effect, subcontractors of Beijing’s spies. Under pressure from the Obama administration and Congress, the Chinese company Huawei was rebuffed in its attempts to purchase network infrastructure manufacturer 3Com; in 2010, Sprint dropped China’s ZTE from a major U.S. telecommunications infrastructure contract after similar prodding. Last September, executives from the Huawei and ZTE were brought before the House intelligence committee and told, in effect, to prove that they weren’t passing data back to Beijing. “There’s concern because the Chinese government can use these companies and use their technology to get information,” Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger, said at the time. The executives pushed back against the charges, and no definitive links to espionage operations were uncovered. But the suspicion remains. And it isn’t contained to these two firms.
“I’m startled,” says Dean Cheng, a research fellow and veteran China-watcher at the Heritage Foundation. “Is this risky? Well, since the satellite was openly contracted, they [the Chinese] know who is using which transponders. And I suspect they’re making a copy of all of it.”
Even if the data passing over the Apstar-7 is encrypted, the coded traffic could be used to give Chinese cryptanalysts valuable clues about how the American military obfuscates its information. “This is giving it to them in a nice, neat little package. I think there is a potential security concern.”
And even if the Chinese don’t intercept the data, there’s always the danger of them suddenly deciding to block service to the American military.
For his part, Loverro says the Department of Defense will be reviewing its procedures to ensure that future satellite communications deals both let troops talk and let them talk in private. The Pentagon will get another opportunity shortly: the Apstar-7 deal is up on May 14, and can be renewed for up to three more years.

Pentagon leaning on Chinese satellite for Africa Command communications

On the heels of a new presidential resolution for US government agencies to avoid Chinese IT hardware over security concerns, the Pentagon has sparked outcry by disclosing its lease of bandwidth from a Chinese satellite.
According to Pentagon spokeswoman Lieutenant Colonel Monica Matoush, the US Africa Command has decided to lease space on the Apstar-7 satellite, which is majority operated by China’s state-owned Aerospace Science & Technology Corp via Hong Kong-based APT Satellite Holdings.

The military contract has been active since 2012, when Department of Defense contractor Harris CapRock Communications arranged the $10.6 million one-year lease. That agreement is set to expire on May 14, though the agency has the option to increase it by an additional three years, according to Bloomberg Businessweek.

Via an emailed statement by Lt. Col. Matoush, both US Africa Command and the Defense Information Systems Agency “made an informed risk assessment of operational security considerations and implemented appropriate transmission and communications security and information assurance measures.”

According to Dean Cheng, a research fellow and veteran China-watcher at the conservative Heritage Foundation who spoke with Wired, the Apstar-7 satellite contract presents security concerns for the US.

“I’m startled. Is this risky? Well, since the satellite was openly contracted, they [the Chinese] know who is using which transponders. And I suspect they’re making a copy of all of it,” according to Cheng.

“This is giving it to them in a nice, neat little package. I think there is a potential security concern,” added Cheng.

In her emailed statement, Lt. Col. Matoush noted that the security of “all signals to and through the Apstar-7 satellite are fully protected with additional transmission security.” The latter referring to the encryption of US data.

The Pentagon’s contract peaked the curiosity of lawmakers in Congress when it was disclosed on April 25 during a House Armed Services Committee. As Bloomberg reports, Representative Mike Rogers (R-Alabama), chairman of the panel overseeing space programs, believes that the arrangement with the Chinese satellite operator sends a bad message:

“[The contract] exposes our military to the risk that China may seek to turn off our ’eyes and ears’ at the time of their choosing,” said Rogers.

“It sends a terrible message to our industrial base at a time when it is under extreme stress,” he added.

Douglas Loverro, the Pentagon’s top space and satellite policy official, informed the House panel that the Apstar-7 lease was the only one available to fill an urgent “operational need, but we also recognize that we need to have a good process in place to assure this” type of decision “is vetted across the department.”

Steve Hildreth, a military space policy expert with the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service, also told Bloomberg that “a very high percentage of US military communications use commercial satellites on a regular and sustained basis.”

“The US military does not have major concerns with this arrangement,” according to Hildreth.

The “urgent” need quoted by Loverro refers to the US military’s increasing reliance on data uplinks for coordinating ground operations and drone reconnaissance. Owing to a lack of capacity by military and commercial satellites, apparently the Pentagon saw no choice but to enact the agreement for use of the Apstar-7 satellite.

In 2012 China exceeded US satellite launches for the first time, though American companies still owned the largest portion of total satellites launched into orbit that same year.

Even if the Department of Defense can assure critics that the data transmitted through the China-operated satellite can remain secure, it’s likely to still attract outcry, demonstrating a fragmented policy direction on the part of the US government.

In late March 2013, in a new government IT security measure, the US Commerce Department, Justice Department, NASA and the National Science Foundation were all directed to assess any risk with equipment acquisitions manufactured or assembled by one or more entities owned, directed, or subsidized by China.



 2013-11-14
業務回顧:
在軌衛星
二零一二年內，在軌之亞太衛星及其地面衛星測控系統均運行良好，持續為亞太衛星之客戶提供穩定、可靠的優質服務。

亞太7號衛星
亞太7號衛星已於二零一二年三月三十一日由中國長城工業集團有限公司（「中國長城」）之長征三號乙增強型運載火箭成功發射升空。亞太7號衛星接替於二零一 二年退役的亞太2R衛星。亞太7號衛星定點於東經76.5度軌道位置，是一個Spacebus 4000C2型高功率地球同步通信衛星。該衛星載有28個C頻段轉發器及28個Ku頻段轉發器，其中亞太7號衛星C頻段轉發器提供與亞太2R衛星相同的覆 蓋，可確保客戶順利由亞太2R衛星過渡至亞太7號衛星。Ku頻段轉發器分別設有中國波束、中東及北非波束、非洲波束及可移動波束，進一步增強了集團對上述 區域的衛星資源和覆蓋能力。集團已成功將亞太2R衛星上的客戶遷移至亞太7號衛星。此外，於年內集團已與亞太7號衛星的客戶簽訂了新服務合約。截至二零一 二年十二月三十一日止，其使用率達74.6%。