How do China’s dealmakers ease foreign worries about the nation’s global buying spree?

BUSINESS

Sinophobia remains, but savvy dealmakers soothe foreign worries about China’s $207 billion buying spree

In larger Chinese companies, managers wield their education abroad and international experience to help address stakeholder concerns about a flurry of foreign purchases that has come to $207 billion thus far in 2016. Their skill is amplifying China’s role in the world of mergers and acquisitions, providing fresh capital to Western economies while posing stiff competition to U.S. and European firms also looking to buy. Among the moves in their dealmaking playbook are: an aversion to hostile takeovers; years of informal courtship leading up to friendly offers; retention of existing management teams; investment guarantees lasting five years or longer; and the preservation of independent oversight / Bloomberg

Deal watch:

• Interactive graphic: China’s overseas deals, from $16 billion in 2006 to $207 billion in 2016 / Bloomberg
• Opinion: China Oceanwide’s deal to buy an ailing U.S. insurance company for $2.7 billion is unlikely to end well / Reuters
• German regulator takes back approval for China’s purchase of the semiconductor firm Aixtron amid rising concern about high-tech acquisitions / NYT

MORE IN BUSINESS:

• After a major hacking attack, a Chinese company will recall its webcams that are sold in the U.S. / Reuters
• To help handle a surge of souring debt, China will let provinces set up more than one bad-loan management company / WSJ
• Home-buying couple enlists divorce to get around new regulations aiming to control a frenzied property market / Bloomberg

POLITICS

Xi calls for absolute loyalty ahead of high-level Communist Party gathering where the key theme is discipline

More than 300 high-level officials will meet in Beijing for four days this week for a Communist Party plenum that will kick off a critical year for China’s leadership, culminating with the 2017 party congress where Xi Jinping will have an opportunity to fill top posts with his allies. / WSJ

MORE IN POLITICS:

• China’s Communist Party discipline inspectors broaden their duties from fighting corruption to ensuring political support for Xi Jinping and his policies / NYT
• A dozen provincial-level leaders have been invited to a Communist Party meeting in Beijing, signaling their likely promotion to the party’s Central Committee / SCMP
• Xi Jinping’s crackdown on corruption and policy reforms are among the items likely to be on the agenda at this year’s pivotal Communist Party plenum / Bloomberg
• Police reportedly detain person who posted video of labor protest at Wuhan Iron and Steel for spreading rumors / Reuters

SOCIETY

China’s expanding deserts encroach on growing cities, and the seas of sand leave families struggling

Accelerated by climate change and human activities, China’s deserts have been spreading at an annual rate of more than 1,300 square miles. Government efforts to contain the growth have included relocating residents, planting trees and placing limits on herding. But the utility of the measures is debated, and as the arid northern regions continue to expand, families at the deserts’ edges fight to survive. / The New York Times

MORE IN SOCIETY:

• Opinion: American-born Chinese woman ‘goes back to China’ to escape U.S. racism and finds a different experience of discrimination / Foreign Policy
• The Palace Museum, commonly known as the Forbidden City, will display tens of thousands of additional relics in a second facility on Beijing’s outskirts / SCMP
• The book ‘Back from the Dead,’ written by a legal scholar who is also a novelist, reflects on wrongful convictions and changing views of the death penalty in China / Guardian
• Jack Ma suggests that China use big data to help prevent crime / Bloomberg