David Wolf submits:
Venture Sprout founder and CEO Elliott Ng responded to my post “Schell Gets China Investment Problem Half Right” with a thought-provoking comment that calls for more than an offhanded reply.
David, Isn’t Party and government involvement in acquisitive Chinese companies part of the problem in getting approval from foreign countries for acquisition, not just a “Brand China” issue? This issue was discussed in MacGregor’s “The Party” and if large companies at scale have significant government ownership and/or Party involvement, it seems that most large, strategic acquisitions will be rejected. Baidu or Tencent buying companies is very different from CNOOC or Anshun [sic] Steel cases mentioned in the Schell piece. All of the Japanese companies mentioned above are not controlled by the ruling political party and/or owned by the Japanese government. I don’t think this is a “Brand China” issue — it is a “Team China” issue. When the acquirers are SOEs — under SASAC purview — it’s only natural that countries around the world would be concerned about assets being acquired by the commercial arm of the Chinese government (and Party).
