Money Machine

Chapter 10Transition to Nowhere

Just as we thought the roller coaster was about to finally stop, it veered sharply off course.

The night before the signing date, April 29, Xiao Suining called me to say there was a change to the timetable. The vice mayor, for reasons he would not share, had postponed the date of meeting with Xiao until after the week‐long holiday. Why did the vice mayor want such a long delay? What did he or the city government have in mind? We had no way of knowing, and naturally I was dreading the possibility that the government might be having second thoughts. Third or fourth thoughts, really.

Later in the day we learned that the CCP's standing committee in Shenzhen, which was the highest body of decision making, had held an ad hoc meeting that morning. One of the agenda items, again, was SDB. Obviously some officials were trying to reopen the case and reverse the previous decision. We could only guess that Zhou had managed once again to upset the process.

What we found out was even more bizarre. Chen, the new vice mayor, had suggested that the government should now simultaneously talk with Newbridge and Chinatrust regarding the sale of SDB's control. So much for his expressed commitment to the deal, but we all knew his commitment did not mean much without the consent from his higher‐ups. We also knew he wouldn't have suggested this without someone higher up having whispered it in his ear.

It was a maddening development. The government had been working with ...