This week on Sinica we talk shop about Caterpillar's discovery of massive accounting fraud and subsequent $580 million write-down from a Chinese company the American equipment manufacturer acquired. We also look at the mysterious death of an American engineer in Singapore, ruled a suicide but believed by the late engineer's parents to be a cover-up involving, perhaps, controversial Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei. Joining host Kaiser Kuo to look behind the news at these stories are special guests Simon Montlake, the Beijing Bureau Chief for Forbes Magazine, and Bill Bishop, "the China Hand's China Hand" and the force behind the must-read China news aggregator Sinocism.

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 said on
February 21, 2013
MENTIONS

topic 1) Singapore suicide

Death in Singapore, by Raymond Bonner and Christine Spolar for the Financial Times

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/afbddb44-7640-11e2-8eb6-00144feabdc0.html

Huawei denies work in field linked to U.S. death in Singapore, by Jeremy Wagstaff for Reuters

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/18/us-huawei-singapore-idUSBRE91H0G920130218

topic 2) The Caterpillar debacle

Cat Scammed: How A U.S. Company Blew Half A Billion Dollars In China, by Simon Montlake for Forbes

http://www.forbes.com/sites/simonmontlake/2013/02/13/cat-scammed-how-a-u-s-corporation-blew-half-a-billion-in-china/

Caterpillar's reverse merger, by Paul Gillis at the China Accounting Blog

http://www.chinaaccountingblog.com/weblog/caterpillars-reverse-merger.html

Lights Out At Caterpillar's Troubled China Subsidiary, by Simon Montlake for his Ride the Tiger blog (Forbes)

http://www.forbes.com/sites/simonmontlake/2013/02/14/lights-out-at-caterpillars-troubled-china-subsidiary/

设局卡特彼勒, Economic Observer story on Caterpillar by Chen Xu and Li Yuan

http://www.eeo.com.cn/2013/0126/239396.shtml?utm_source=Sinocism+Newsletter&utm_campaign=2bc0f3237a-Sinocism01_29_13&utm_medium=email

RECOMMENDATIONS

Sinica Seal of Approval:

The Sinocism China newsletter, by Bill Bishop

http://sinocism.com

Bill Bishop:

1. Mr. China: A Memoir, by Tim Clissold

http://www.amazon.com/Mr-China-Memoir-Tim-Clissold/dp/0060761407

2. House of Cards (Netflix)

http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/House_of_Cards/70178217?locale=en-US

Simon Montlake:

Somewhere Between, documentary on teenaged girls adopted from China

http://www.somewherebetweenmovie.com/

Kaiser Kuo:

Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity, by Katherine Boo

http://www.amazon.com/Behind-Beautiful-Forevers-Mumbai-Undercity/dp/1400067553/ref=la_B0052Y2JJE_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1361362277&sr=1-1

Bonus:

Return to River Town, by Peter Hessler for National Geographic

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2013/03/fuling-china/hessler-text
Mark Lesson Studied