China’s SASAC Orders Central SOEs to Pay SME Bills on Time, Bans Notes Over Six Months

The six-month cap on new notes is the sharper instrument here: it directly targets the commercial paper and acceptance-bill chains that have effectively turned large SOE balance sheets into de facto lenders to their own supply chains. For SME suppliers, the signal matters less than enforcement — prompt payment mandates have been issued before, and the binding constraint is whether central SOEs actually release cash rather than roll obligations. The open question is whether this shortens payment cycles in practice or simply pushes financing into other instruments.