From David Webb:

China Construction Bank, known by local jokers as "China Corruption Bank" in honour of its jailed former Chairman Wang Xuebing (who's offences were actually committed at Bank of China), is heading for listing. If they get this one away, then we shall know that the market has truly reached a top. We haven't seen such excitement since the property and red chip market peaked simultaneously in 1997.

Sure, they've taken the bad loans out of the bank, but what about the bad lenders? Do you really believe that thousands of semi-autonomous branches have suddenly discovered the art of credit analysis and that the local communist party cadres and bribe-waving wannabe tycoons will leave them alone to make good lending decisions? The unseemly scramble of foreign banks to become minority shareholders in the mainland "big-four" is puzzling given that the foreigners have been promised full market access from 2007 under China's WTO commitments. As any investor in HK will tell you, being a minority shareholder doesn't buy you much say in how a firm is run.

Our allegation of Apr-04 against CNOOC Ltd has been proven right. The Listing Committee of the Stock Exchange today issued a public censure of CNOOC for failing to seek shareholders' approval before lending money to its parent's finance company. We look back at the case, and call on the Exchange and SFC to increase transparency over their secret, closed-door disciplinary proceedings.

Updated 17:14

After months of silence, Mr. Webb lets loose two missives in as many days. Today he looks at intervention in Hong Kong's labour market:

We examine HK legislators' calls for a statutory minimum wage and maximum working hours, and the Government's move to put public bodies on this path resulting from a pact between Donald Tsang and the unions during his nomination campaign. He was making promises with your money. We also look at the proposed "1+1" labour importation scheme - a sop to politically-connected textile families, the job-for-life labour contracts of the civil service, statutory Severance and Long Service Payments, and the Protection of Wages on Insolvency Fund.