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One of the great ironies in China today is that the spoils of the country’s tech highflyers—Tencent Holdings Ltd TCEHY 1.09% , Weibo Corp WB 0.10% , Sina Corp. SINA 0.60% , Baidu BIDU 1.52% and JD.com JD , to name just a few stock market stars —are largely going to foreigners.
當(dāng)今中國一大令人啼笑皆非的事情是，中國科技公司的佼佼者大多為外國人所持有：騰訊控股（Tencent Holdings Ltd）、微博（Weibo Corp）、新浪（Sina Corp.）和京東(JD.com），隨便舉出幾個(gè)明星股票，都是這樣。
It’s tough to know exactly how much of the stocks foreigners own. The complicated structures Chinese companies use to skirt China law that makes foreign investments in tech illegal (more on that in a second) also obfuscate exact ownership levels. But even by fairly conservative estimates, foreigners own a lot. And they’re richer for it.
很難確切知道外國人擁有這些公司多少股票。中國法律禁止外資投資科技領(lǐng)域（稍后將進(jìn)一步說明），為了繞開相關(guān)規(guī)定，中國公司使用了非常復(fù)雜的結(jié)構(gòu)，而這也模糊了真正的持股狀況。但即便是非常保守的估算，外國人也持有大量股份。而且，他們都賺得盆滿缽滿。
The South African media company Naspers paid $34 million for an early stake in Tencent that’s now worth more than $40 billion. Yahoo’s $1 billion investment in Alibaba back in 2005 is worth around $30 billion. And Baidu’s IPO in 2005 made many U.S. venture capitalists very rich.
南非傳媒公司Naspers以3,400萬美元購得的騰訊早期股份，當(dāng)前價(jià)值已超過400億美元。雅虎（Yahoo）2005年投資阿里巴巴的10億美元，當(dāng)前也已價(jià)值約300億美元。百度（Baidu）2005年的IPO也讓很多美國的風(fēng)險(xiǎn)投資者一夜暴富。
But what’s striking today is that, aside from the stock owned by the Chinese companies’ founders and insiders, many of the shares of these companies are owned by foreigners. Essentially, Chinese tech companies are foreign-owned—the result of Chinese laws making it illegal for most Chinese to own the stocks of their country’s best performing companies.
但如今尤其引人注目的是，除了這些中國公司的創(chuàng)始人和內(nèi)部人士擁有的股票外，這些公司的很多股票都由外國人所持有。基本上，這些海外上市的中國科技公司都是外國人持有——造成這個(gè)結(jié)果的正是前面提到的中國法律規(guī)定，因?yàn)樗勾蟛糠种袊顺钟羞@些中國業(yè)績最佳公司的股票。
Foreigners were first able to own Chinese tech upstarts through something called a variable interest entity (VIE), first created for Internet portal Sina’s IPO in New York in 2000.
外國人最早能持有這些中國科技新貴的股票是通過可變利益實(shí)體（VIE），這種架構(gòu)是2000年中國互聯(lián)網(wǎng)門戶網(wǎng)站新浪在紐約上市時(shí)創(chuàng)造出來的。
The VIE was an accounting gimmick to get around China’s rules limiting foreign ownership in industries the government deemed sensitive, such as technology. Under the laws, foreign investors are usually not permitted to own more than 50% of equity in a “value-added” telecommunications company.
可變利益實(shí)體是一種會(huì)計(jì)技巧，旨在繞開中國政府的限制，讓外國投資者能擁有科技等中國政府視為敏感行業(yè)的股權(quán)。依照這些法律規(guī)定，外國投資者通常禁止持有“增值”電信公司50%以上的股份。
To get around this, bankers set up VIEs in tax havens like the Cayman Islands and linked them to Chinese companies in the mainland. This allowed foreign investors buy shares in the VIE instead of the mainland Chinese company directly.
為了繞開這些法律規(guī)定，銀行家們?cè)陂_曼群島等避稅天堂設(shè)立了可變利益實(shí)體，將它們與中國大陸的公司關(guān)聯(lián)起來。這使得外國投資者可以購買這些可變利益實(shí)體的股票，而不是直接購買中國大陸公司的股票。
But by listing overseas, the tech company stocks became foreign stocks in China, which meant regular Chinese investors couldn’t buy them. China’s strict capital control laws prevent citizens from moving big money out of the country to buy things like New York-listed stocks.
但通過海外上市，這些科技公司在中國變成了外國股票，意味著普通中國投資者不能購買。中國嚴(yán)格的資本管制禁止國人將大筆資金轉(zhuǎn)移出國，購買在紐約上市的股票等這類資產(chǎn)。
“It is one of the problems with the Cayman Islands/VIE structures used in this sector,” observes Paul Gillis, a professor at Peking University’s Guanghua School of Management who runs an influential accounting blog from Beijing. “They force an overseas listing that precludes Chinese from becoming shareholders.”
“這是在這個(gè)行業(yè)使用開曼群島/可變利益實(shí)體架構(gòu)所產(chǎn)生的問題之一，”北京大學(xué)光華管理學(xué)院（Peking University’s Guanghua School of Management）教授保羅o吉利斯說。這位教授在北京開了一個(gè)非常有影響力的會(huì)計(jì)博客，他說“這些公司選擇海外上市后，中國人就被排除在外，無法再成為它們的股東?！?/div>
This is why even by conservative guesses, the majority shareholders of China’s tech names are foreigners.
這也是為什么，即便用最保守的估計(jì)，海外上市中國科技股公司的大股東也是外國人。
Take Tencent, the $145 billion company behind China’s most popular app, WeChat. The South African media company Naspers has a stake of about 35%, according to its website. After that, Chairman “Pony” Ma and a co-founder own about 16% of the company. Most of the rest of the equity is owned by people outside mainland China.
以騰訊公司為例，這家公司運(yùn)營著中國最流行的應(yīng)用軟件微信（WeChat），當(dāng)前價(jià)值1,450億美元。據(jù)通訊公司網(wǎng)站的數(shù)據(jù)顯示，南非傳媒公司Naspers擁有它大約35%的股份。公司董事長馬化騰和一位聯(lián)合創(chuàng)始人擁有這家公司約16%的股份。剩余大部分股份都為中國大陸以外的人士所有。
Alibaba’s example is even starker. In IPO materials filed this year, Alibaba said Yahoo held a 23% stake and Japan-based SoftBank owned 34%. Founder Jack Ma, by comparison, holds about 7.5%.
阿里巴巴的例子更加鮮明。阿里巴巴在今年早些時(shí)候遞交的IPO材料中稱，雅虎持有23%的股份，總部位于日本的軟銀（SoftBank）擁有34%的股份。相比之下，創(chuàng)始人馬云僅持有約7.5%的股份。
Once the company IPOs in New York in what’s being hyped the largest public offering ever in the U.S., dozens of Alibaba insiders will earn Internet riches by selling their stakes to buyers in public markets. Those buyers will undoubtedly be located outside China.
一旦阿里巴巴這項(xiàng)宣稱為美國最大IPO的交易在紐約進(jìn)行，幾十位阿里巴巴內(nèi)部人士將通過公開市場出售所持股份，成為互聯(lián)網(wǎng)富豪。而這些買主將毫無疑問來自中國之外。
The unfairness of regular Chinese investors not getting to buy into the country’s hottest companies doesn’t go unnoticed in China. A Chinese book titled “The Historical Truths 99% Chinese Don’t Know” released in 2011 includes a chart purporting to show that Japanese, American, and South Africans owned more than 85% of Sohu, Baidu, and Tencent, respectively.
普通中國投資者不能購買海外上市的最熱門中國股票，中國并不是沒有人注意到這個(gè)不公平的現(xiàn)象。2011年出版的《99%的中國人不知道的歷史真相》（The Historical Truths 99% Chinese Don’t Know）一書中，一張圖顯示日本、美國和南非分別持有搜狐（Sohu）、百度和騰訊85%以上的股份。
The chart is hyperbole. But in China, the sentiment is not.
這張圖有點(diǎn)夸張。但在中國，這種情緒一點(diǎn)也不夸張。
