A Chinese podcast · Same story, 4 levels
证监会处罚老虎、富途、长桥：跨境炒股的灰色地带
China Penalizes Tiger, Futu and Longbridge: The Grey Zone of Cross-Border Investing
About this story
China Penalizes Tiger, Futu and Longbridge: The Grey Zone of Cross-Border Investing. HSK 3 Chinese listening practice.
This is an HSK 3-4 Chinese listening episode that runs about 6 minutes. The full Mandarin script is shown with tap-for-pinyin and a line-by-line English translation, so you can listen and read at once — comprehensible input in the sense of Stephen Krashen's i+1 theory. It teaches 12 key vocabulary words such as 公司、国家、同意 and walks through 4 grammar patterns, each explained in English with examples. The same news story is retold at 4 difficulty levels — use the level selector above to find the version that is challenging but still understandable for you.
Read at your level
原文Read the complete story in Chinese. Reveal pinyin and English only when you need them.
English transcript reference
Today we'll talk about a finance news story.
This is
a big news story from May 22.
The main figures in the news
are three companies:
Tiger, Futu, and Longbridge.
Before discussing this news,
we need to first make a few words clear.
The first word: stock.
A company
can be divided into many shares.
One of those shares
is a stock.
If you buy a company's stock,
you own
a small part of that company.
If the company develops well,
the stock rises;
if the company develops badly,
the stock falls.
The second word: brokerage.
Most people, to buy stocks,
cannot buy directly.
They need a "middleman"
to buy for you
and sell for you.
This middleman
is the brokerage.
Tiger, Futu, and Longbridge
are exactly this kind of brokerage.
Their biggest feature
is using phone apps
to make buying stocks very simple.
And moreover,
with them you can buy American
and Hong Kong stocks.
For many Chinese people,
this is very attractive.
So in recent years,
more and more people have used them.
Some say
the number of mainland accounts
buying US stocks this way
may be several million.
Alright,
the words are explained;
let's look at the news.
On May 22,
China's CSRC issued an announcement.
The "CSRC,"
its full name is
the China Securities Regulatory Commission.
Simply put,
it is the department that manages China's stock market.
The CSRC said
that Tiger, Futu, and Longbridge
had broken the law.
Where exactly did they break the law?
The key is four characters:
"cross-border business operation."
"Cross-border"
means crossing a country's borders.
"Business operation"
means carrying out business,
doing trade.
In China,
helping others buy and sell stocks
requires a license.
A company must first get the CSRC's approval
before it may do this business.
But these three brokerages,
without this license,
went and, within China,
did marketing and promotion,
helped clients handle trades,
and other such business,
and earned money from it.
The CSRC holds
that this is illegal operation.
So,
the CSRC decided:
to confiscate all of their illegal gains.
In other words,
the money they earned this way
will all be taken back.
And furthermore,
they will be severely penalized.
As soon as this news came out,
the market reacted at once.
Tiger and Futu
are both companies listed in the US.
After the announcement,
their share prices fell sharply;
one of the companies
at one point dropped
more than forty percent.
This was a very large fall.
Speaking of this,
you might ask a question:
buying US stocks with a phone —
isn't that quite normal?
Why does the state manage it?
This brings us to
a very important background.
In China,
money entering and leaving the country
is subject to management.
This is called "foreign exchange control."
For an ordinary Chinese person,
the amount of foreign currency exchangeable in a year
has a quota.
And according to the rules,
this foreign currency
cannot be casually used
to buy foreign stocks.
In other words,
mainland residents
buying US stocks through these apps
have always been in a
"grey zone."
What is a grey zone?
It means this matter
is not clearly legal,
nor clearly illegal.
It is in the middle,
a blurry place.
This kind of grey zone
has in fact existed for many years.
As early as a few years ago,
the state had already noticed it.
At that time,
these apps
were required
to no longer open to
new mainland users.
In the app stores,
their apps were also taken down.
But this time,
the state's attitude
has clearly gone a step further.
Early this May,
the CSRC and eight departments
jointly issued a plan.
The plan's goal is clear:
to use two years
to completely stop
this kind of illegal cross-border business.
The May 22 penalty
is one part of this plan.
So,
the people who already have accounts —
what should they do?
On this point,
the state spoke very clearly.
There is no need to panic.
Accounts already opened
will not be forcibly closed.
The money,
stocks,
and funds in the accounts
will also not be forcibly taken away.
But over these two years,
you can only sell,
only transfer money back,
and cannot put new money
in anymore.
In other words,
this door
is slowly closing.
Finally,
I want to share my own thoughts.
This matter
is in fact a contradiction
between "convenience" and "rules."
For an individual,
buying the whole world's stocks with a phone
is of course very convenient.
But for a country,
how money comes in
and goes out
concerns the whole country's
financial security.
Convenience
cannot become
a reason to bypass the rules.
Finally I ask you:
Do you think
a person's money
should be free
to invest in any country?
Or rather,
does the state have reason
to manage this matter?
Think about it.
Okay.
That's all for today.
Talk tomorrow.
Listen again
Try it without the transcript and notice what sounds clearer.
What vocabulary does this episode teach?
词汇Company. The episode builds up from basics: a 公司 can be split into shares, each share is a stock.
Country, the state. The core tension: how money crosses a country's borders matters to the whole 国家.
To agree, to consent. 做这种生意，必须先得到国家的同意 — this business needs the state's consent first.
To notice. 早在几年前，国家就已经注意到了 — the state had noticed this grey area years ago.
A question, a problem. The episode pauses on the natural 问题: buying US stocks by phone seems normal — why regulate it?
To decide. 证监会决定：没收它们的全部违法所得 — the regulator decided to confiscate all illegal gains.
A securities brokerage. Beyond HSK3. The episode glosses it: the 中间人 (middleman) who buys and sells stocks for you.
Cross-border. Beyond HSK3. The episode glosses it: 跨过国家的边界 — crossing a country's borders. 跨境展业 = doing business across borders.
A permit, a license. Beyond HSK3. A firm must get the CSRC's approval — a 许可 — before doing brokerage business.
Illegal. Beyond HSK3. Operating without a license, the regulator said, is 非法经营 — illegal business operation.
To confiscate. Beyond HSK3. The CSRC will 没收 all 违法所得 — confiscate every yuan of the illegal gains.
Foreign exchange — foreign currency. Beyond HSK3. China's 外汇管理 limits how much foreign currency a person can convert each year.
* beyond level超纲词
What grammar patterns appear in this episode?
语法什么叫 X? + definition
A teaching move: name a hard term, ask 什么叫, then give a plain definition. The episode uses it to unpack 灰色地带.
什么叫灰色地带？
就是这件事，不是明确的合法，也不是明确的非法。
不是 A，也不是 B
Two negations together place something in between two clear categories. The episode uses it to define a grey area.
不是明确的合法，也不是明确的非法。
它在中间，是一个模糊的地方。
也就是说 restates a point in plainer words. The episode uses it to make legal phrasing concrete.
没收它们的全部违法所得。
也就是说，把它们这样赚到的钱，全部收走。
对…来说
对 + (someone) + 来说 frames a judgment from a viewpoint. The episode contrasts what is true 对个人来说 versus 对一个国家来说.
对很多中国人来说，这很有吸引力。
对一个国家来说，钱怎么进、怎么出，关系到金融安全。
Proper Nouns
专有名词Free account
Keep learning from this story
Create a free account to keep saved words and your preferred level together.
- Keep words with their story context
- Remember your preferred level
- Build your vocabulary over time