Epoch Times - 95 Percent of Chinese Stocks on US Exchanges Aren’t Real Shares in Chinese Companies: Roger Robinson
Aired: 2025-04-04
Duration: 02:15


=== Cayman Islands Conundrum (02:15) ===

[00:00:00]  Some 95% of the Chinese companies that are traded on the Nasdaq and New York Stock Exchange.
[00:00:08]  What about if the American people understood that they don't own one share of these Chinese companies?
[00:00:14]  They're all registered in the Cayman Islands.
[00:00:18]  A front company is established.
[00:00:21]  It has a contract that is supposedly infused with the value of Alibaba, for example.
[00:00:29]  But do we own actual shares of Alibaba, which many Americans do?
[00:00:36]  Millions, tens of millions do.
[00:00:39]  No. Or they think they do.
[00:00:41]  They think they own shares, but they own shares of a contract of a front company set up in the Cayman Islands that's supposed to substitute for real shares.
[00:00:53]  Now, why did that happen?
[00:00:55]  Because the Chinese came to the regulators in the United States and they said, it's not okay for Americans to hold any peace, any real ownership in our companies.
[00:01:09]  So we have to invent this vehicle, this one-off, if you will, this separator here in VIEs.
[00:01:20]  Where's the reciprocity in that?
[00:01:23]  When we own, I mean, when the Chinese own shares of an American company, they own the shares.
[00:01:31]  We own some facsimile of shares.
[00:01:36]  So, it is remarkable to me that the SEC chairmen, in long succession over the past decades, ... have lived with this thing ever since it was invented.
[00:01:49]  I can't tell you the year that it was invented, but it is an insidious device.
[00:01:54]  And I hope that the incoming SEC chairman, Paul Atkins, who I think is sensitive to these issues, is going to put an end to this kind of thing.
[00:02:04]  This isn't something where you need enhanced disclosure to learn more about the VIEs.
[00:02:10]  The VIEs themselves are a scandal and need to be terminated immediately.