Career
In the late 1970s, Liu Yongxing and his brothers founded an electronics company that had to close soon after, as such business ventures were regarded as “too capitalistic” at the time.[5]
In 1982, Liu YongXing and his three brothers, accumulated 1,000 RMB and started a company called the “Hope Group.” The business consisted of raising quail and hatching chickens in the Sichuan Province. They also established the Hope Research Center for animal feeds in 1986.[1][6]
In 1995,[9] Hope Group was split up into four separate companies among the siblings: West Hope Group (Chen Yuxin), New Hope Group (Liu Yonghai) and Continental Hope Group (Liu Yongyan).[10] Liu Yongxing retained parts of the agricultural business and got involved in the heavy chemical and aluminium industry, which ultimately led to the founding of today’s East Hope Group in 1995, one of the largest aluminium producers worldwide.[11]
In 1999, Liu Yongxing relocated his East Hope HQ to Shanghai, China.[9]
In 2002, Liu Yongxing started his business in the Aluminum industry.[9]
In August 2016, Chinese news site Sohu published a profile covering Liu Yongxing and his approach to conducting business.[12] Concerning criticism about environmental pollution caused by East Hope factories, the article quotes Liu as saying that “in the heavy chemical industry, environmental issues are a common risk, so I do everything in accordance with the most stringent standards.”[12][13] Nevertheless, East Hope Group has been penalized multiple times for violating environmental regulations that included fines, forced production cuts and technical upgrades. For example, punishments were handed out in 2014, 2015 and 2016 for exceeding SO2, NOx and dust emission caps of the Group’s plants in Shandong, Xinjiang, Henan and Inner Mongolia.[14][15][16]
In 2015, East Hope's Baotou plant received 4.2 billion yuan in funds to incentivize upgrading its environmental protection facilities,[17] while at the same time, a new kiln for solid waste disposal at one of the company's cement factories was regarded as innovative by Chinese authorities, according to East Hope sources.[18]
On 15 December 2016, two people were killed when a red mud reservoir at East Hope’s Sanmenxia plant failed.[19] Four months prior to the accident, amid another red mud spill incident in the province, the local government conducted safety inspections at East Hope facilities and approved their full compliance with the standards.[19] Thus far, there are no reports that the company has faced repercussions for the accident.
