| ▲ | faitswulff 7 hours ago |
| > They’ll nationalize and inflate away any institutional debt or wipe it out This is just the reverse, actually, China isn’t afraid to go so far as to jail CEOs. There is no such thing as too big to fail in China, and all the Chinese domestic companies know it. The bailout playbook is a western thing. |
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| ▲ | toomuchtodo 7 hours ago | parent | next [-] |
| China has been performing debt swaps with local governments to clean up their balance sheets [1], so used as an example. Agree with all of your comment. People make the mistake that China plays by artificial US capital market rules around profit and debt; they do not. They optimize for physical world success, not line go up. [1] Why China Is Hoping $1.6 Trillion Can Fix Its Hidden Debt Problem - https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-04-16/china-eco... | https://archive.today/HsaHV - April 16th, 2025 |
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| ▲ | faitswulff 7 hours ago | parent [-] | | Ah, I think I get it. Are you saying that regardless of BYD’s continued existence, China will still have 1/3 of the world’s manufacturing capacity? | | |
| ▲ | toomuchtodo 7 hours ago | parent [-] | | Yes, exactly. Just as in the US, when an enterprise gets wiped out and recapitalized, all of the physical assets remain. In China’s case, they are the backstop of last resort, and will always recapitalize according to their nation state planning and target outcomes. They allow companies to operate the assets as long as the Chinese government is willing to allow it, but they remain assets of China. | | |
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| ▲ | victorbjorklund 7 hours ago | parent | prev [-] |
| They only jail the people that upset the regime. |
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| ▲ | ben_w 7 hours ago | parent [-] | | From the outside, it appears that "upset the regime" includes "cheating your way into profits". That said, it's very difficult to be sure if what I see from the outside is propaganda. Or rather, it is always propaganda even when it's true, and I can't tell how much of it is China's own self-promotion vs. other people giving negative propaganda. | | |
| ▲ | victorbjorklund 6 hours ago | parent [-] | | You don’t think president Xi:s family and friends cheated? Of course they have. Yet they don’t go to prison. | | |
| ▲ | ben_w 6 hours ago | parent [-] | | I'm saying from the outside, it doesn't look like that. That's a much weaker statement, as should've been obvious from what I went on to say about propaganda. Example of cheating: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Officials_implicated_by_the_an... And: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Chinese_milk_scandal#Arre... Nevertheless, it would be interesting if someone could, you know, prove, and not merely allege, that Xi Jinping's family or friends cheated. | | |
| ▲ | ctchocula 5 hours ago | parent [-] | | https://panamapapers.org/case-study-china | | |
| ▲ | ben_w 2 hours ago | parent [-] | | Yup, that's the kind of thing I have in mind. Even with the sub-heading "It's legal, and that's the problem."*, and even though this kind of cheating is broader than this reply chain from "There is no such thing as too big to fail in China", this is absolutely within bounds for what I asked for :) * and the not-proof-read AI generated image, that never helps… |
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