By holing AP Møller-Maersk’s plans for a grand European shipping alliance below the waterline, the Chinese government has sent a powerful message that it will not hesitate to block deals deemed detrimental to corporate and consumer interests in the world’s second-largest economy.
“If anyone was going to stop it, it was going to be the Chinese,” says Jon Windham, Hong Kong-based head of infrastructure and transport research at Barclays. “They were the only regulator that would have felt their domestic companies would be disadvantaged.”
