Based on the comments it seems many people are missing out on some of the most important points the blogger is making.
First, a very large percentage (maybe 40-50%) of Chinese companies going public on Western and developed Asian exchanges have turned out to be complete frauds. There have of course been some very large companies that have been very successful and they are likely completely honest, but there are also many, many often smaller companies who's financial statements are pure fiction.
It turns out that the biggest beneficiaries of the frauds were politically connected families, yet none has been prosecuted. The Chinese had decided to open things up a little bit, essentially taking baby steps towards the Western model and require companies to file at least a minimal amount of information domestically and to make some this information theoretically publicly available. Furthermore when a company goes publicly in most markets outside China, it has to file a whole smorgasbord of financial information.
Most of these frauds were uncovered by a careful examination of financial statements companies going public were required to file. A number of the frauds were in fact discovered by this blogger himself (see his earlier posts). In many cases the financial statements were just ludicrously implausible. In other cases they were listing facilities which did not exist etc. Very few were in anything other than plain view.
Remember that this really hurts honest Chinese companies (and there are many high quality Chinese companies that do things by the book) because you are going to have to do far more due diligence on a Chinese company because you can't really rely on the financial statements. Even after you do due diligence you are going to demand a discount. While there is a mania for anything Chinese by naive retail investors everything seems fine if you are a small company with a limited float but for a huge company trying to raise a lot of capital, you have to raise money from well informed institutions.
While companies that only list domestically are harder to do due diligence on, it seems, based on work done by the blogger and others, that the percentage of frauds listing on the Shanghai exchange is at least as high as the percentage of frauds listing on foreign exchanges.
Imagine if 40-50% of US companies going public over a period of time were frauds and this was discovered through their public filings. Legislators and regulators would be lining up to require more disclosure. Instead the Chinese have now changed the law so Chinese companies have to file less information and the information they do file is practically a state secret. This is somewhat akin to companies trading on the NYSE filing absolutely NO financial statements and the SEC and Congress preventing anyone from seeing what they did file.
Especially given that in the few cases where it is possible to trace the ultimate beneficiary of the frauds, it has been a politically connected family member, none of whom have been prosecuted, it is hard to ascribe any reason to pass rules restricting access to company financial information other than a desire by the elites to steal as much as they can through stock fraud.
First, a very large percentage (maybe 40-50%) of Chinese companies going public on Western and developed Asian exchanges have turned out to be complete frauds. There have of course been some very large companies that have been very successful and they are likely completely honest, but there are also many, many often smaller companies who's financial statements are pure fiction.
It turns out that the biggest beneficiaries of the frauds were politically connected families, yet none has been prosecuted. The Chinese had decided to open things up a little bit, essentially taking baby steps towards the Western model and require companies to file at least a minimal amount of information domestically and to make some this information theoretically publicly available. Furthermore when a company goes publicly in most markets outside China, it has to file a whole smorgasbord of financial information.
Most of these frauds were uncovered by a careful examination of financial statements companies going public were required to file. A number of the frauds were in fact discovered by this blogger himself (see his earlier posts). In many cases the financial statements were just ludicrously implausible. In other cases they were listing facilities which did not exist etc. Very few were in anything other than plain view.
Remember that this really hurts honest Chinese companies (and there are many high quality Chinese companies that do things by the book) because you are going to have to do far more due diligence on a Chinese company because you can't really rely on the financial statements. Even after you do due diligence you are going to demand a discount. While there is a mania for anything Chinese by naive retail investors everything seems fine if you are a small company with a limited float but for a huge company trying to raise a lot of capital, you have to raise money from well informed institutions.
While companies that only list domestically are harder to do due diligence on, it seems, based on work done by the blogger and others, that the percentage of frauds listing on the Shanghai exchange is at least as high as the percentage of frauds listing on foreign exchanges.
Imagine if 40-50% of US companies going public over a period of time were frauds and this was discovered through their public filings. Legislators and regulators would be lining up to require more disclosure. Instead the Chinese have now changed the law so Chinese companies have to file less information and the information they do file is practically a state secret. This is somewhat akin to companies trading on the NYSE filing absolutely NO financial statements and the SEC and Congress preventing anyone from seeing what they did file.
Especially given that in the few cases where it is possible to trace the ultimate beneficiary of the frauds, it has been a politically connected family member, none of whom have been prosecuted, it is hard to ascribe any reason to pass rules restricting access to company financial information other than a desire by the elites to steal as much as they can through stock fraud.