Stats for nerds
1recommend
3mentions
3people
2013–2021years
33% recommend67% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- Surprised no one has mentioned “Red Capitalism (2012)” which specifically covers the finance industry in China (pre-AliPay but post reform in the modern era) which gives a clear insight into the sort of banking system Ma tried to shake up and their big role in China’s rise.
https://www.amazon.com/Red-Capitalism-Financial-Foundation-E...
The author is an excellent China Watcher who works at an Australian think tank and basically covers this topic for a living.
His blog post on the matter is a good starting point, which was before the IPO was cancelled, and many before that were prescient.
https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/many-trails-an...
- China previously required Alibaba and other companies to accept government officials within their companies.
https://www.ft.com/content/055a1864-ddd3-11e9-b112-9624ec9ed...
Fraser Howie, author of "Red Capitalism", says that all Chinese corporations are either state owned enterprises or state overseen enterprises. It appears China may want to transition Alibaba from the latter to the former.
- Some of the reporting on Suntech by other news organizations is quite interesting. From "China’s Solar Billionaire Undone as Banks Push Suntech to Brink"
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-20/china-s-solar-billi...
comes this striking summary of the market: "'Being in the solar manufacturing industry over the past eight years has been an excellent way to turn a big fortune into a small one,' said Jenny Chase, lead solar analyst at Bloomberg New Energy Finance in Zurich."
The Australian press has especially good reporting because of the connections between Suntech and Australia through Shi Zhengrong, the founder of Suntech who moved to Australia after completing higher education degrees in China. The story "Suntech's failure forces Beijing policy rethink" from the newspaper The Australian
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/columnists/suntechs-...
reports,
"In substantial part, Suntech -- whose board first kicked Shi out of the chief executive's position last August, then a fortnight ago removed him as chairman -- is the victim of state industrial policy.
"As Carl Walter and Fraser Howie, American bankers with decades of experience living and working in China, point out in their important book Red Capitalism, China's party leaders have believed in recent years that 'they are better positioned than any market to value and price risk'."
The New York Times reports in "Chinese Solar Panel Maker Falters as Prices Plunge"
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/21/business/energy-environmen...
"Ocean Yuan, the president of Grape Solar, an importer of solar panels based in Eugene, Ore., said he foresaw a series of bankruptcies by big Chinese solar panel manufacturers, some of which, like Suntech, have very high debt. Chinese manufacturers lost as much as $1 for every $3 of sales last year as they struggled to keep factories open despite falling prices.
"'They are bleeding every day,' Mr. Yuan wrote in an e-mail. 'The more they sell, the more they lose money.'"
