AT A NEWS conference on Thursday, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission said that the profits of central State-owned Enterprises had grown by 20.9 percent in the first nine months of 2017, which is the highest rise since 2012. Beijing News comments:

There used to be a time when certain central SOEs suffered from such huge losses that they had to rely on subsidies to survive. So their excellent performance today is rather significant.

Some say that SOEs, especially those directly controlled by the central government, should render services to the public. That's correct, but they are market players, too, and they need to seek profits just as their private counterparts do. The increase in their profits during the first three quarters of the year shows they have done a good job.