Beijing is making a spectacle of Capvision, whose shareholders and investors include a network of remarkably high profile and state-connected individuals and companies. Why?
Illustration by Sam Ward
In the corner of the Shanghai office, three heart-shaped balloons float silently over rows of empty desks. Laptops sit half-opened, full cups of coffee beside them, and jackets hang on chairs.
The images, shown earlier this month on China’s state broadcaster, China Central Television (CCTV), imply that the office had been teeming with activity just hours before, but that the employees had to leave in a hurry. With interviews from anonymous whistleblowers and uniformed state security officers, the 15-minute segment covered in dramatic detail Beijing’s recent raid of Capvision, a Shanghai-based consultancy.
To many observers, CCTV’s segment felt like the latest shock in an earth-shattering few weeks for the international business community in China. Just weeks before, Chinese authorities detained five Beijing-based employees of the Mintz Group, a global consultancy, for unspecified “illegal business operations,” and raided the offices of Bain & Company. Now, CCT
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