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.Enjoy Sinica? In addition to signing up for Bill's newsletter, other things you can do to keep in touch with us include following us on Twitter and checking out our Sinica Facebook page. And if you want more Sinica than a single webpage can offer, feel free to subscribe to our Sinica RSS feed, or download this show as a standalone mp3 file to share with others.
Sinica
said on February 21, 2013
MENTIONStopic 1) Singapore suicideDeath in Singapore, by Raymond Bonner and Christine Spolar for the Financial Timeshttp://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/afbddb44-7640-11e2-8eb6-00144feabdc0.htmlHuawei denies work in field linked to U.S. death in Singapore, by Jeremy Wagstaff for Reutershttp://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/18/us-huawei-singapore-idUSBRE91H0G920130218topic 2) The Caterpillar debacleCat Scammed: How A U.S. Company Blew Half A Billion Dollars In China, by Simon Montlake for Forbeshttp://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 Bloghttp://www.chinaaccountingblog.com/weblog/caterpillars-reverse-merger.htmlLights 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 Yuanhttp://www.eeo.com.cn/2013/0126/239396.shtml?utm_source=Sinocism+Newsletter&utm_campaign=2bc0f3237a-Sinocism01_29_13&utm_medium=emailRECOMMENDATIONSSinica Seal of Approval:The Sinocism China newsletter, by Bill Bishophttp://sinocism.comBill Bishop:1. Mr. China: A Memoir, by Tim Clissoldhttp://www.amazon.com/Mr-China-Memoir-Tim-Clissold/dp/00607614072. House of Cards (Netflix)http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/House_of_Cards/70178217?locale=en-USSimon Montlake:Somewhere Between, documentary on teenaged girls adopted from Chinahttp://www.somewherebetweenmovie.com/Kaiser Kuo:Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity, by Katherine Boohttp://www.amazon.com/Behind-Beautiful-Forevers-Mumbai-Undercity/dp/1400067553/ref=la_B0052Y2JJE_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1361362277&sr=1-1Bonus:Return to River Town, by Peter Hessler for National Geographichttp://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2013/03/fuling-china/hessler-text