This is the conclusion of a two-part series on how Wynn Resorts, one of the world’s biggest casino operators, pursued a deal to acquire land in Macau’s Cotai Strip from a pair of Chinese businessmen.
Steve Wynn has said it was a simple real estate deal: In 2005, when Wynn Resorts wanted to build a second casino in Macau, China's fast-growing gambling hub, the government told him the land had already been committed to someone — a man named Ho Ho. In order to get access to the land, Wynn Resorts paid a company linked to Ho Ho $50 million.
But the deal — which resulted in the Wynn Palace, the “single most important project” in the company’s history — prompted questions from the very start, namely because, as Part One of this series showed, Ho Ho was virtually unknown. He did not have documented rights to the land and his associates, including a man named Ho Hoi, had minimal paper trails and no known experience in casinos or hospitality. In fact, none of the peo
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When China announced it was ending quarantine requirements for incoming travelers, Chinese people collectively picked up their phones to search popular travel apps like Ctrip and Qunar. Owned by travel giant Trip.com, these apps helped Chinese travelers explore the world pre-pandemic and facilitated the human-to-human interactions that drove China's rise. But many of today's travelers seem to be sticking closer to home, and their hesitation to get back to the jetsetting habits of the past 20 years has far-reaching implications — especially for Trip.com.
The professor talks about China's real estate bubble; if China can develop a modern financial system without rule of law; and why it's not China that is reshaping the global order, but the world's response...