Never did chinese at school so have no idea of that post's...

Never did chinese at school so have no idea of that post's content or accuracy but different sources state this same company as a private company (e.g. https://www.bloomberg.com/profiles/companies/WEIPGZ:CH-weihai-port-group-co-ltd).

Having said that it doesn't deny the "state" or there delegates to have some equity in them. For example the Shanghai International Port (Group) Co., Ltd. is ~61% owned by the Shanghai government under their own government delegation framework, so who owns the other ~39%. does this make it an SOE by nature of the majority equity in the business? Not in this case it doesn't as this company is listed on the shanghai Stock Exchange.

So one always has to be careful when making claims about what an entity is or isn't when it exists in a different jurisdiction that has different terms, different references and a different framework in which it exists.

I guess the main question is "Does the announcement by WHA portray fairly and clearly for shareholders the entity it has a conditional arrangement with and is it accurate in content and intent". Anything else as to what else may come with the announcement is pure speculation by wild minds with too much time on their hands.