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You do know CCP cronies and sons of party high officials hold stock in Alibaba right? Basically if you are a big enough company in China, you aren't gonna get

You do know CCP cronies and sons of party high officials hold stock in Alibaba right? Basically if you are a big enough company in China, you aren't gonna get away from this, either by introducing red capital yourself, or the red capital is gonna force their way in when you want to go public(you need to apply for it in China and the quota is very limited). One of the least shady example: https://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/07/20/alibabas-i-p-o-could-be-a-bonanza-for-the-scions-of-chinese-leaders/ https://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/07/20/alibabas-i-p-o-could...

saagarjha 8y ago
> You do know CCP cronies and sons of party high officials hold stock in Alibaba right? Since Alibaba is a publicly traded company, can't anyone hold stock in it?
- cauldron 8y ago
  Maybe I didn't frame it the right way, but there's an inherent difference between simply hold stock, and let red capital profit exponentially in exchange for political risk minimization and shadow clout.
- adventured 8y ago
  The most interesting thing going on in that respect with Chinese companies such as Alibaba, is that the government is forcing public companies to accept board members from the government. They've also taken nominal stakes in the companies as cover. [1][2][3] There was endless speculation [4][5] that Jack Ma was forced out of power at Alibaba, by the government over concerns about the tech giants becoming too central to the Chinese economy and communications. Jack Ma was probably the most powerful person in China next to Xi. [1] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-congress-companies/exclusive-in-china-the-partys-push-for-influence-inside-foreign-firms-stirs-fears-idUSKCN1B40JU https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-congress-companies/... [2] https://www.wsj.com/articles/beijing-pushes-for-a-direct-hand-in-chinas-big-tech-firms-1507758314 https://www.wsj.com/articles/beijing-pushes-for-a-direct-han... [3] https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/13/business/china-online-stakes-control.html https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/13/business/china-online-sta... [4] https://www.barrons.com/articles/jack-ma-alibaba-trade-war-1537296962 https://www.barrons.com/articles/jack-ma-alibaba-trade-war-1... [5] https://www.wsj.com/articles/alibabas-jack-ma-denies-beijing-forced-him-out-1537280485 https://www.wsj.com/articles/alibabas-jack-ma-denies-beijing...
  - withhighprod 8y ago
    Have you heard of the “Eight Great Eminent Officials” of CCP? Their descendants summoned a meeting early this year to criticize Xi and Xi “had to” show up. There are rumors that the someone from the committee threatened to replace Xi in the next term. Xi is quite powerful but Chinese politics have a much “deeper water” than you thought

saagarjha 8y ago

> You do know CCP cronies and sons of party high officials hold stock in Alibaba right? Since Alibaba is a publicly traded company, can't anyone hold stock in it?

cauldron 8y ago
Maybe I didn't frame it the right way, but there's an inherent difference between simply hold stock, and let red capital profit exponentially in exchange for political risk minimization and shadow clout.
adventured 8y ago
The most interesting thing going on in that respect with Chinese companies such as Alibaba, is that the government is forcing public companies to accept board members from the government. They've also taken nominal stakes in the companies as cover. [1][2][3] There was endless speculation [4][5] that Jack Ma was forced out of power at Alibaba, by the government over concerns about the tech giants becoming too central to the Chinese economy and communications. Jack Ma was probably the most powerful person in China next to Xi. [1] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-congress-companies/exclusive-in-china-the-partys-push-for-influence-inside-foreign-firms-stirs-fears-idUSKCN1B40JU https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-congress-companies/... [2] https://www.wsj.com/articles/beijing-pushes-for-a-direct-hand-in-chinas-big-tech-firms-1507758314 https://www.wsj.com/articles/beijing-pushes-for-a-direct-han... [3] https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/13/business/china-online-stakes-control.html https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/13/business/china-online-sta... [4] https://www.barrons.com/articles/jack-ma-alibaba-trade-war-1537296962 https://www.barrons.com/articles/jack-ma-alibaba-trade-war-1... [5] https://www.wsj.com/articles/alibabas-jack-ma-denies-beijing-forced-him-out-1537280485 https://www.wsj.com/articles/alibabas-jack-ma-denies-beijing...
- withhighprod 8y ago
  Have you heard of the “Eight Great Eminent Officials” of CCP? Their descendants summoned a meeting early this year to criticize Xi and Xi “had to” show up. There are rumors that the someone from the committee threatened to replace Xi in the next term. Xi is quite powerful but Chinese politics have a much “deeper water” than you thought