In dealing with China, companies and politicians have often overlooked its shortcomings in human and democratic rights and problems with corruption. Financiers and investors in Asia, in fact, even admire the way in which the dominant one-party regime “gets stuff done” in contrast to India’s chaotic democracy – it is one of the biggest arguments against a hard landing, or policy paralysis for the economy.
Two current corporate stories highlight how efficacy and control are valued more highly in China than accountability.
They involve very different companies that each dominates its sphere: Bloomberg, the US-based financial data and news service, and Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce group.