Poison pill corporate takeover defenses: China style

[c1ue]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009...rs-boss-beaten

Workers who beat to death a steel firm executive in north-east China had been told that 25,000 of them would lose their jobs in a takeover, according to sources quoted by state media.
Officials in Jilin province ordered the deal to be scrapped after the death of Chen Guojun, the general manager of the Jianlong Steel Holding Company, on Friday.
Beijing-based Jianlong is one of the largest private steelmakers in China. It planned to take a majority stake in the state giant Tonghua Iron and Steel Group, which makes about 7m tonnes of steel a year.
But workers at Tonghua believed it would axe thousands of jobs. A demonstration halted production at the site and quickly escalated into violence.
"Employees [many of whom are shareholders] are close to enjoying financial gains as the price of steel continues to rise," a police officer told the official newspaper China Daily.
"Then Chen disillusioned workers and provoked them by saying most of them would be laid off in three days. Chen, saying that a total number of 30,000 employees would be cut to 5,000, infuriated the crowd."
According to state media, Jianlong had held a sizable stake in Tonghua since 2005 and had been instrumental in restructuring the company. Last year Jianlong left the partnership following poor results – reportedly leading workers to celebrate with firecrackers.
But as the price of steel rebounded, aided by the government's stimulus package, Tonghua's prospects improved and Jianlong sought a majority stake in the firm .
An initial report from a Hong Kong-based human rights organisation suggested that 30,000 workers were involved in the riot – making it easily China's largest mass disturbance since an incident in Weng'an, Guizhou, last summer.
But other internet postings put the figures at about 10,000, while the state news agency Xinhua suggested 1,000 people were involved and China Daily reported 3,000.
Xinhua said an investigation by the Jilin government showed that protesters rushed into the factory and halted production.
It added: "A small number of the protesters found the injured manager who [had] been hidden and beat him repeatedly, while some others blocked the roads in the factory to prevent the police and ambulances from reaching the manager."
The Beijing News reported that employees began assaulting Chen after he demanded they resume work.
They only halted their blockade of the plant at about 10pm, after local news reported that officials had ordered Jianlong to abandon their bid.

[touchring]

Re: Poison pill corporate takeover defenses: China style

I can envisage that if the loan bubble bursts and a bank run occurs, tens of thousands of customers will try and force their way into the bank, and soldiers will have to be called in to shoot a few people before the mob stops.

[aaron]

Re: Poison pill corporate takeover defenses: China style

If the guy really got up there and told an angry mob that they would all be fired, then he deserved what he got. This article is just an example of Darwinism.

I thought the typical Chinese poison pill was arresting "industrial spies", who happen to work for competitors.

[touchring]

Re: Poison pill corporate takeover defenses: China style

If the guy really got up there and told an angry mob that they would all be fired, then he deserved what he got. This article is just an example of Darwinism.

I thought the typical Chinese poison pill was arresting "industrial spies", who happen to work for competitors.

The next time a Chinese state firm manager makes a merger announcement

[metalman]

Re: Poison pill corporate takeover defenses: China style

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009...rs-boss-beaten

so... what's gonna happen there when the china bubble pops?

[c1ue]

Re: Poison pill corporate takeover defenses: China style

so... what's gonna happen there when the china bubble pops?

I've been pondering this for some time.

Chinese, even the mainlanders, tend to desire high pay for high output (as EJ pointed out).

As output declines due to demand falling, who will get blamed? This is an instance where management can legitimately say it isn't their fault.

Similarly most people in general - and mainland Chinese in particular - are simply not sophisticated enough to link a national economic policy of Economic MAD with the US with a US economic failure causing great hardship for them (the mainland Chinese).

So it is not clear to me that there is going to be specific anti-government unrest.

On the stock market side - certainly there are a lot of unsophisticated newbies there who will be angry as the market falls, but again normally Chinese tend to be pretty philosophical about money lost in a gambling enterprise.

So again a potential deep well of dissatisfaction but without a specific focus.

In fact the nationalism card can be played; the CCP can say legitimately that the accumulated savings of the people in the form of China's existing dollar hoard is being deliberately inflated away by US policies.

Thus if necessary the Chinese government can even point out a nice scapegoat.

But of course time will tell.

[touchring]

Re: Poison pill corporate takeover defenses: China style

As output declines due to demand falling, who will get blamed? This is an instance where management can legitimately say it isn't their fault.

To the older workers that still subscribe to cultural revolution and Maoist ideas, the fact that the management pay themselves more than the rank and file, they are already at fault and deserve the death penalty.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009...rs-boss-beaten

Communism and Marxist idealogy in China is still very strong. If the unemployment situation gets very bad, the communist hardliners will take the opportunity to fight back the bourgeois.

The US doesn't have such hardliners, this is what makes the US more stable than China.

[metalman]

Re: Poison pill corporate takeover defenses: China style

I've been pondering this for some time.

Chinese, even the mainlanders, tend to desire high pay for high output (as EJ pointed out).

As output declines due to demand falling, who will get blamed? This is an instance where management can legitimately say it isn't their fault.

Similarly most people in general - and mainland Chinese in particular - are simply not sophisticated enough to link a national economic policy of Economic MAD with the US with a US economic failure causing great hardship for them (the mainland Chinese).

So it is not clear to me that there is going to be specific anti-government unrest.

On the stock market side - certainly there are a lot of unsophisticated newbies there who will be angry as the market falls, but again normally Chinese tend to be pretty philosophical about money lost in a gambling enterprise.

So again a potential deep well of dissatisfaction but without a specific focus.

In fact the nationalism card can be played; the CCP can say legitimately that the accumulated savings of the people in the form of China's existing dollar hoard is being deliberately inflated away by US policies.

Thus if necessary the Chinese government can even point out a nice scapegoat.

But of course time will tell.

as you say, localized groups take on the gov't on localized issues... the shoddy schools that fell down in the earthquake ... the taking of farms without compensation, etc. the ccp crushes any organization that might organize a wider group... falun gong... and monitors/controls any means of communications that a national group might use to organize and coordinate activity.

hard to imagine any other than spontaneous outbreaks of protest/violence. the ccp cracks down before they spread and turn into some kind of wildfire of protest.