Chinese Official’s Visit to Suning Holdings Puts the Troubled Conglomerate Under the Spotlight

Tourists visit the Zhonghua Gate in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China on June 26, 2008. The Zhonghua Gate, the biggest castle-style city gate in China and a structural element of the most complicated castle in the world, was built in the period of Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms (917 A.D). China Photos/Getty Images

Commentary

The Chinese regime’s credit information agency disclosed on Dec. 10 that Suning Holdings Group pledged all its shares to Taobao, a subsidiary of Alibaba. On the same day, a high-level Chinese official visited Suning Holding’s headquarters in Nanjing, the capital city of Jiangsu Province. But it seems the investigation was merely a political show and an attempt to conceal the company’s financial troubles.