Economics
How Alibaba's U.S. IPO Got the Company Ordered Out of Taiwan
Documents give government evidence it needs to make the Chinese connection
Alibaba founder Jack Ma.
Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Taiwan wants to kick Alibaba.com out because it's Chinese. Of course, everybody has known since its inception that Alibaba, the world's largest e-commerce operator, is Chinese.
What's operating in Taiwan, however, is Alibaba.com Singapore E-Commerce Private Ltd. When that company was registered on April 9, 2008, Jack Ma's outfit was doing what it does in many countries, and indeed what many corporations do in many countries: operating via an offshore holding company.