For flying enthusiasts, the Icon A5 plane looks like a dream toy. The two-person aircraft, which costs around $300,000, can land on water while its folding wings make it easy to pack up into a trailer.
But the A5’s maker, Icon Aviation Inc., is currently at the center of a bitter dispute between some of its minority shareholders and its biggest investor, China’s state-owned Shanghai Pudong Science and Technology Investment Co. (PDSTI). The minority shareholders alleged in a Delaware court last June that PDSTI has hobbled Icon’s development while planning to transfer its technology — which, they say, could have military applications — back to China.
The dispute has reportedly drawn the attention of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (Cfius), which reviews foreign investments for national security concerns. Its interest is in turn the latest sign of the sensitivity around any Chinese investment in America
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When Ken Wilcox, a former CEO of Silicon Valley Bank, moved to Shanghai in 2011, he was optimistic and eager to start up the bank's new joint venture in China. A decade later, however, he is extremely cynical about U.S. business interests in China. While analysts will, rightly, be debating SVB's missteps in the U.S. for the foreseeable future, Wilcox insists the bank's challenges in China should not be overlooked.
The former secretary of state talks about how the Trump administration changed U.S.-China relations; why he accused Beijing of genocide in Xinjiang; and why U.S. politicians should visit Taiwan.
