Fake Disney parks: Executive signs unauthorized deals with Chinese cities

The New York Times reports (paywall) that a Walt Disney executive named Meng Dekai 孟德楷 had signed deals with a number of Chinese cities to open Disney-branded parks without authorization from the company. Disney told the Times that it “had parted ways with Mr. Meng” but did not specify if he had resigned or been sacked. The company began investigating after media reports about the deals that Meng had signed.

The Times quotes James McGregor, veteran China businessman and author of One Billion Customers: Lessons From the Front Lines of Doing Business in China: “This is the weirdest thing I’ve ever heard of when it comes to fraud against a foreign business… I mean, it’s so big and it’s so public, it’s such a big-name company. What was he thinking?”

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