Saturday, July 31, 2021

China Plays National Security Card – Here’s Why Beijing Cracks Down Its Own U.S.-Listed Chinese Companies



China Plays National Security Card – Here’s Why Beijing Cracks Down Its Own U.S.-Listed Chinese Companies


When President Donald Trump signed a law in December 2020 that would kick Chinese companies off U.S. stock exchanges, unless they play ball and obediently comply with American auditing standards such as the Sarbanes Oxley Act (SOX), it was actually a political motivated move. It was an additional weapon, on top of the tariff, to threaten Beijing.



While it may sound like a good idea to provide greater transparency to American investors, the fact that Chinese companies were allowed to be listed on the U.S. stock market in the first place proves that the U.S. securities regulator has already done sufficient checking and inspection. However, Trump wasn’t happy that he had failed to bring Beijing to its knees during the U.S.-China trade war.



It was clearly anti-Chinese moves when the State Department revealed more than 1,100 Chinese subsidiaries that Trump said his administration has banned in January 2021 under the pretext that those companies have ties to China’s military. Using executive order, the U.S. president said American investors were banned from investing in those Chinese companies.



The law – “The Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act” – prohibits securities of foreign companies from being listed on any U.S. stock exchange if they have failed to comply with the U.S. Public Accounting Oversight Board’s audits for three years in a row. The act also requires public companies to disclose whether they are owned or controlled by a foreign government.



It was a move to systematically target all the Chinese companies after technology giants like Huawei, Hikvision, China Telecom and China Mobil were cracked down earlier using the popular excuse – a threat to the national security. Heck, even Chinese-developed apps like the hugely successful TikTok and WeChat were banned, only to be thrown out by the U.S. courts.



For more than 2 decades, hundreds of Chinese companies have flocked to the U.S. stock market. The crackdown would mean about 400 U.S.-listed Chinese companies may soon delist from the U.S. stock exchange, wiping a jaw-dropping US$2 trillion in market value. Trump, and his successor, Joe Biden, thought the move to weaponize capital markets could cripple China.



However, doing so would also make it harder for U.S. firms to win business in Asia that involves managing Chinese assets. American asset management will also find it difficult to tap Chinese investors. American investors will be the biggest loser as they are restricted from investing in companies from the world’s second biggest economy like Alibaba, Pinduoduo and PetroChina.



More importantly, Chinese companies aren’t that reliant on U.S. investors for capital. While a listing in the U.S. stock market will enrich the founders and backers, who comprise American investors, Beijing actually does not benefit from such exercise. Erasing US$2 trillion off from the American stock exchange will not make China any poorer.



A fast learner, China has quickly learned how to use Trump’s weapon – tariff – on not only American products, but also in punishing Australia. China’s trade surplus with the U.S., which Trump tried to reduce, remained near historic highs at US$32.58 billion in June. In fact, China exported US$252.86 billion worth of goods to the U.S. in the first half of 2021, compared to only US$87.94 billion in import.



Now, Beijing has also learned the benefits of shutting down its own Chinese companies from the U.S. stock market, thanks to Trump and Biden. Stock markets in mainland China and Hong Kong have experienced heavy selling as Beijing continues its stunning crackdown on Chinese technology stocks as well as local companies listed overseas.



Social-media giant Tencent, for example, has seen its market value plunged to US$544 billion, losing about US$390 billion since its peak in mid-February. Share prices of Hong Kong-listed Alibaba, Meituan and even New Oriental Education and Technology Group have been dropping like a rock. Wall Street big boys are also affected as China said it would tighten rules for companies listed overseas.



Yes, Trump and Biden do not have to worry about closing down the Chinese companies suspected of threatening the U.S. national security, because Beijing is doing them the favour by clamping them down before they could even get listed in America. Didi Global Inc.’s decision to push ahead with its listing on the New York Stock Exchange despite objections from Chinese regulators has offended Beijing.



Didi, the Chinese ride-hailing giant valued at US$62 billion following an August fundraising round, is being investigated by China’s market regulator – State Administration for Market Regulation – over practices of unfairly pushing out smaller competitors in an antitrust probe. Trading at US$7.54 today, it has lost almost 50% of its IPO (initial public offering) price of US$14 a share.




The main underwriters of Didi’s offering – Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase – were all affected as the American IPO bankers scrambled to understand the Beijing’s latest move. Didi’s latest screw-up means any Chinese company that was planning for a U.S. listing will have no choice but to postpone or scrap it entirely.



Inspired by Donald Trump, Beijing has announced on July 10 that all local businesses trying to go public in another country will require approval from the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), a newly empowered cybersecurity regulator. Didi was raided by CAC, along with officials from at least seven departments over privacy and data security matters.



Not only the CAC spoiled Didi’s party with an investigation just 48 hours after its IPO in the U.S., but the Chinese regulator also ordered Didi’s mobile app to be pulled from app stores in China, halting new customers from joining the service of the ride-hailing giant. The CAC accuses that Didi was illegally collecting and using personal data, causing its stock price to collapse.



Playing the national security card, China justified that the U.S. government could use audit documents that Didi was required to disclose as a U.S.-listed company to gain access to data on Chinese citizens. As far as Chinese President Xi Jinping is concerned, Chinese companies should put their nation ahead of business interests as the relation between the U.S. and China deteriorates.



Chinese companies have raised more than US$100 billion from U.S. IPOs since 2012, but those money mean very little to Beijing, who has US$3.222 trillion of foreign reserves as of May this year. China can live without a single local company tapping into foreign capital in the Wall Street, but the same cannot be said about American investors trying for a piece of the Chinese market.



The Chinese securities regulators have been resisting demands of disclosure of audit papers from foreign countries, especially the United States. That’s because Chinese companies’ audit information may involve the confidentiality of “data and information” in China. For two decades, the country has closed one eye over a loophole that enables Chinese companies to go public.



Companies like Alibaba that managed to list in the U.S. used a loophole known as Variable Interest Entities (VIEs), which allowed it to bypass Chinese rules restricting foreign investment in highly sensitive industries such as media and telecommunications. Using the VIE, a Chinese company sets up an offshore company for overseas IPO purposes that allows foreign investors to buy its stock.



But thanks to Trump’s trade and tech war with China, only made worse by Biden, the U.S. securities regulators are demanding access to confidential data and information through a so-called audit of Chinese companies. Taking a page from Trump’s playbook, Beijing now wants to plug the loophole and will do anything to stop the U.S. from threatening China’s national security.



Beijing’s moves to crack down on listings by its companies on U.S. markets are also a clever strategy to redirect a major portion of the IPO flow to Hong Kong. China wants to have a better control of local companies, and the best way to do that is to drive them to local markets such as the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, instead of the NYSE where they have zero control.



Foreign investors who are hungry for a piece of Chinese action will have little choice but to go to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Imagine the US$2 trillion market capitalization from 400 U.S.-listed Chinese companies could be transferred back to Hong Kong. While Chinese companies with the VIE structure have been largely barred from mainland exchanges, Hong Kong allows them.



So far this year, 41 Chinese companies have raised US$29.4 billion in Hong Kong compared with US$14.9 billion in the same period in 2020. U.S.-listed Chinese companies including Alibaba, JD.com and Baidu have also raised more than US$37 billion since late 2019 via new listings in Hong Kong amid escalating trade war between the U.S. and China.



The endgame was to create an environment which would enable Chinese technology companies to list at home without jeopardizing national security, and be less reliant on the U.S. capital. China cannot constantly be at the mercy of the U.S. as President Joe Biden, like his predecessor, Donald Trump, has openly declared that China is the enemy of the United States.



23 comments:

  1. China has for years been tapping trillions of US dollars of American capital market funds - the largest, deepest and most liquid in the world- to fund their corporate expansion and many cases developmemt of technology designed to kill American servicemen.

    About time the American investors woke up.

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    Replies
    1. Such an anmokausai insight by a Yankee myrmidon!

      How could the Chinese tapped trillions of US dollars of American capital market funds if the financial savvy Americans (learnt through yrs of hardcore Wall Street trainings) ARE NOT the willing players?

      & what have the American investors gotten from their Chinese investments?

      Many of these Americans, personal &/or corporates, hold considerable stakes in many of the top 50 listed Chinese companies in NYSE, HKEX via convoluted/interlocking nominee shareholdings.

      Many of them have indirectly & masterfully manipulating the msnagements/operations of these listed Chinese companies to deviated from the socialistic marketing economy that the China central govt has envisaged/planned/transformed via yrs of painstaking of trials&errors - many a time with dire consequences!

      Right now, with a people-caring, effective centrally governance mechanism & a farsighted leadership, China DOESN'T need greedy American investments & potential blackmailing technologies.

      It's indeed about time that the Chinese wake up to these insidious American capitalistic schemings & going back to the original socialist initiatives!

      Delete
  2. This is where Bullyand has screwed up Big Time. Hongkieland was presented on a platter to Bullyland in 1997, but it was like Throwing Diamonds to Pigs.

    If Bullyland had left the Diamond alone since 1997 Honkieland, with the Bullyland IPOs, would today have become a Financial Powerhouse to compete with New York, London or Tokyo. Singapore would be small fry by comparison. Leave Honkieland alone till 2047, and do all those listings locally and New York can be secondary listing.

    But now it is too late, Bullyland they can only catch up what has already been lost. Gostan.

    The Hard Lesson is Business is best left to Honkies, they were trained well by Britannia, but Modern Mao thought he was so smart, understood capitalism. But He Destroyed Honkieland.

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    1. don't tok kok - HK became an economic powerhouse because of the Shanghainese - who you can find in multitudes in, would you believe, Shanghai

      Delete
    2. Shanghainese, Cantonese, Teochewnese, Fuxianese.....all Chinese lah. Hongkieland under Britannia Rule provided the right environment for businesses to grow and prosper. Britannia was so smart in that respect, allow all the migrating mainlanders to work hard and prosper in Hongkieland, just like how they brought in the Chinese and Tamils into Malaya and allowed them to work in rubber and tin mines, today so many successful lawyers and towkays. Some even migrate to White Man's land and Blog in English.

      Incidentally Wiki's says under "Shanghainese people in Hong Kong:

      "Shanghainese people in Hong Kong have played an important role in the region since 1949"

      What happened in 1949?

      On October 1, 1949, Chinese Communist leader Mao Zedong declared the creation of the People's Republic of China (PRC).

      Wiki goes on to say "1.4 million people from Shanghai are estimated to have fled to Hong Kong as the communist takeover of mainland China drew near, enduring a 10-day rail journey, often switching to road transport or foot where tracks were damaged".

      Mainland China became Bullyland under the Original Mao who Screwed Up Big Time.

      Delete
    3. As the saying goes: if you can’t be successful in business be a politician….and the most notable Shanghainese in Hongkieland today is……Carrie Lam…..ha ha ha….

      Delete
    4. An economic powerhouse arises because of a combination of people - human capital, and the governing legal and regulatory , and, further back, the educational framework.

      In Hong Kong's case, the "governing legal and regulatory , and, educational framework." came from the British Colonial Administration.

      Delete
    5. This blurred mfer has a classical business model dug out from a fart filled well. A model makes out of fake economic matrices & disinformations that only a well dwelling katak could fathom.

      HK is a pioneer lighthouse in her formation yrs in the 70s bcoz of the vast China hinterland for labours & materials. In the 80s, the central govt made a hard choice of pinning HK as the free currency movement in the economic trilemma decision - thus resulting in HK's evolution in financial services. The proximity of HK to China is also a capitalistic magnet for the greedy money from the West.

      With the current progressive development of China, the central govt could easily displace HK with Shanghai/Shenzheng as those earlier economic hard choices r no longer applicable.

      Yet the central govt is still siding with the HK administration in continuing the financial service sectorial developments. The central govt had the heart for the HK people whom many of a 废青 wouldn't want to appreciate!

      Part of the blames is the deep-rooted pommie-ised education, part continue western propagandas spreading by blurred mfers of know-nothing.

      Delete
    6. as usual/expected you know buggerall - Brits did nothing because they knew nuts, leaving the business-commerce spectrum to the local Chinese. Besides the Chinese would do things on their own and fuck the Brits, as seen likewise in Malaysia

      Delete
    7. Monster, fuck the Poms and its regulations. The reason for HK becoming economically strong the Pom's laissez-faire approach, a French term that translates to "leave alone" (literally, "let you do"), is that the less the government is involved in the economy, the better off business will be, and by extension, society as a whole. Laissez-faire economics in HK is a key part of free-market capitalism, allowing the locals to know what they like. Other than that policy of 'indolent reap the fruits from other people's toil' the Poms did nothing

      Delete
    8. Britannia knew nothing about doing business in Hongkieland? Did Nothing?

      Never Read the Book "Taipan" by James Clavell about British Hongs in Hongkieland?

      In fact the Brits were so business savvy they TIPU-ed the Chinese by buying their tea, porcelain and silk and paying with opium grown by Indian slaves in British India.

      Elegantly Brilliant!!

      And in the process the Chinese got hooked on opium and lost Hongkieland after The First Opium War. Up till today Bullyland has not forgiven Britannia for this.

      Jardine Matheson - founded by William Jardine and James Matheson

      HSBC - founded by Thomas Sutherland (today one of the largest banks in the world)

      Hutchison - founded by John D Hutchison (now Li Ka Shing is boss)

      Swire (& Taikoo) - founded by Swire family in Mainland China

      Etc etc.

      Delete
    9. "Taipan" by James Clavell??? Wakakaka, you're becoming a Yank who believes in fairy tales such as Ronald Reagon's kerbau of sending Rambo to Beirut which actually many many Yanks believed in, wakakaka again.

      The enforced opium sales was a case of bullying sales, like oil in the ME and copper in Chile - heard of a bloke named Salvador Allende who was murdered by the CIA?

      Delete
    10. Baca Baik2 dan Faham. Not Fiction.

      James Clavell was actually an Australian citizen, born in KT's hometown Sydney and educated in Britannia.

      He was also a WW2 Hero, fighting against the Evil Yapanese Empire to Free Asia. So please be grateful and don't insult his memory. And he was grateful to the Yanks for Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

      QUOTE (wiki lah)
      During 1940, Clavell joined the Royal Artillery. Though trained for desert warfare, after the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 he was sent to Singapore to fight the Japanese. The ship taking his unit was sunk en route to Singapore, and the survivors were picked up by a Dutch boat fleeing to India. The commander, described by Clavell years later as a "total twit", insisted that they be dropped off at the nearest port to fight the war despite having no weapons.

      Shot in the face, he was captured in Java in 1942 and sent to a Japanese prisoner of war camp on Java. Later he was transferred to Changi Prison in Singapore, where only 1 in 15 prisoners survived.

      In 1981, Clavell recounted:
      "'Changi became my university instead of my prison. Among the inmates there were experts in all walks of life -the high and the low roads. I studied and absorbed everything I could from physics to counterfeiting, but most of all I learned the art of surviving, the most important course of all."

      Prisoners were fed a quarter-pound of rice per day, one egg per week and occasional vegetables. Clavell believed that if atomic bombs were not dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki he would not have survived the war."

      Clavell did not talk about his wartime experiences with anyone, even his wife, for 15 years after the war. For a time he carried a can of sardines in his pocket at all times and fought an urge to forage for food in trash cans. He also experienced bad dreams and a nervous stomach kept him awake nights.
      UNQUOTE

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    11. Blurred mfer, finally showing yr true pommie asslicking attitude!

      "Elegantly Brilliant (Brits were so business savvy)"

      All yr mentioned pommies were bloodsucking opium traders using their auntie's military might to scamm & bully the corrupted qing dynasty.

      What so savvy & brilliant in such operation in gaining ill-gotten wealth from lowly peasants?

      Delete
    12. The novel "Noble House" by James Clavell, the follow up to "Taipan", while names have been changed the Struan and Company is based on Jardine Matheson & Company, which continues to exist as an Asian trading company. The chief character, Ian Dunross, is believed to be a composite character of two real life Jardine Matheson tai-pans, Sir Hugh Barton and Sir Michael Herries.

      No Rambo, No Bullyshit.

      Delete
    13. No Rambo, perhaps.

      No bullyshit? That's yr f*cking anmokausai indoctrination for drug paddlers.

      Noble house?

      Ha… a pack of bloodsucking vampires, acting in their WASP-like chivalrous behaviour that meet, like u, altarized to kingdom comes.

      At least those Colombian drug Lords r more noble in providing foods & vaccines to those people living under their territories during the current pandemic!

      Delete
  3. A foreign company that lists on the KLSE has to agree to be subject to audit suoervision by Malaysia's Security's Commission under Malaysian Law - there are a few such companies.

    A British , European or Canadian company that lists on the New York Stock Exchange or NASDAQ -there are many - has to accept audit by the SEC under American laws.

    What China insisted on was their companies that list in the USA , making money from American investment funds - are NOT subject to American audit laws.

    Thus Bullshit was given waivers by successive stupid American Presidents - Clinton, Bush, Obama, until Donald Trump put a stop to it

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    1. U r still keen to parading yr know-nothing old moneyed farts!

      "A British , European or Canadian company that lists on the New York Stock Exchange or NASDAQ -there are many - has to accept audit by the SEC under American laws"

      Similarly, when the Chinese companies seek IPO listing on the American exchanges, all of them have gone through the same accounting audit requirements as those from British , European or Canadian.

      The new restrictions imposed by the biden administration resulting in the The Securities and Exchange Commission requires ADDTIONAL disclosures from Chinese companies seeking a listing on U.S. stock exchanges!

      The executive order by Biden administation banning investment in businesses thought to have ties to Chinese military.

      There r NO such restrictions place on IPO listings from companies of origin in British , European or Canadian!

      So, mfer, keeps to yr f*cking lies lah.

      Delete
  4. Finally Bullyland's Bull(y)shit Coverup is Exposed.

    Taishan Nuclear Reactor is Shut Down for "maintenance"....ha ha ha likely story. So forget about "molten salt reactor", please learn how to run a conventional one properly first.

    QUOTE
    China shuts nuclear reactor at Taishan plant over ‘minor fuel damage’
    30 Jul, 2021

    A reactor at a nuclear plant in southern China was shut down for “maintenance” due to minor fuel damage, the operator said on Friday, after an increase in radioactivity levels previously sparked fears of a leak.

    Chinese authorities last month blamed minor fuel rod damage for a build-up of radioactive gases at the Taishan plant in Guangdong province, describing it as a “common phenomenon” with no need for concern.

    French nuclear firm Framatome, which helps operate the plant, last month reported a “performance issue” which caused the US government to look into the possibility of a leak.

    “After lengthy conversations between French and Chinese technical personnel, Taishan Nuclear Power Plant ... decided to shut down Unit 1 for maintenance,” China General Nuclear Power Group (CGN) said Friday in an online statement, adding that “a small amount of fuel damage” occurred during the operation of the reactor.

    CGN said that both units of the plant had “maintained safe and stable operations throughout” and the faulty reactor was “completely under control”.

    Engineers would now “find the cause of fuel damage and replace the damaged fuel”, the statement added.

    There were more than 60,000 fuel rods in the core unit and the proportion of damaged rods was “less than 0.01 per cent”, China’s environment ministry and nuclear regulator said previously.

    They called the damage “inevitable” due to factors including fuel manufacturing and transport.

    French energy giant EDF – the majority owner of Framatome – also previously blamed the build-up of gases in one of Taishan’s reactors on the deteriorating of coating on some uranium fuel rods.

    EDF said it was first informed about the fuel rod problem in October, but only learned about the gas build-up in mid-June.
    UNQUOTE

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    1. If a routine preventive measure in operational procedure, especially in a nuclear power station, can be blowed out to be a "Coverup" then blurred mfer, u have many tons of c&p to do - especially in US, Europe & Japan nuclear power station announced preventive shutdowns!

      For yr spare time reading pleasure - check 3mile island nuclear accident!

      Wakakakakaka…

      "minor fuel rod damage for a build-up of radioactive gases"

      Do u know how frequent were those fuel rod r been 'damaged' happened all-over the world in nuclear power station?

      Blurred mfer, those fuel rods r 'picked' with automatic remote mechanical holder. & frequently fuel rods r been scratched during lowering & uplifting to sustain the reaction rate within the core pool.

      Noble gases leak caused by damaged fuel rods!

      Wow!!!

      The writer is either creating radioactive sensationalism or truly know nothing about how noble gaseous r been 'produced' in nuclear power station!

      Yet so easily pick up by a bored c&p dickhead.

      Delete
    2. "So forget about "molten salt reactor", please learn how to run a conventional one properly first"

      BTW, go tell yr auntie pommie to built her own Sizewell C reactor on the Hinkley Point C nuclear station. Now that CGN is pulling out leaving co-partner Electricite de France SA (EDF) dangling in the air w/o money & technologies to continue.

      Blurred mfer, knowing why this nuclear project is classified as C?

      Bcoz yr auntie pommie f*cked up with plans A&B using her own nuclear technologies! So a new Sizewell C reactor has to be enrolled with the helps of CGN & EDF!

      W/O the new Hinkley Point nuclear station, very soon yr auntie pommie would have to dig coal from Newcastle again to live through the winter!

      Delete
  5. "What China insisted on was their companies that list in the USA , making money from American investment funds - are NOT subject to American audit laws."

    Don't twist the fact lah!

    What rubbish! The US stock exchange made the rules doesn't require all listing to submit audit even if they required they could have demanded from the beginning to submit before listing. Now on one hand make Renminbi and on the other hand want to spy on China big data so pretend to ask for audit through the stock exchange? This is akin to you accept the kid to play in your team after he satisfied all your requirements and your government as an after thought through you try to ask the parents what they feed him and how they train him?

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  6. Wow...wow..to be totally gobsmacked by such incredible display of utter garbage, twisted lies and spins by these persistent shameless whitecock suckers ! Such a spew of rubbish from the Tong Sampah and outright Monstrous lies from the Bigot.

    I guess being brainwashed morons with the IQ of a carrot do shield these idiots from recognizing themselves in the mirror, hehehe. Only those staying in the garbage dump perpetually are unable to smell the stench anymore...hence their habitual dredging up those spurious US links to sources etc. And to top it all, they have the audacious daring to adopt this fake stance on morality that their white masters are forever riding on their high horses.

    Bottom line : the US lying machine will continue relentlessly on, which has caused a lot of hostility and suffering in the world. And these mindless serfs and minions here seem to wish for this to continue, in their desire to see China fall. Well, eat your heart out...this is the century of the East Asia, the decline of the West is written on the wall, that's why we see all these stepped up hysterical Western propaganda that's getting out of control.

    ReplyDelete