Bringing tech home

Rules impediment: A file picture shows people walking past an International Women’s Day advertisement by Tmall, Alibaba’s e-commerce platform, at a subway station in Beijing. China securities rules don’t permit classes of stock that give greater voting rights to founders and leaders, an impediment for Alibaba Group’s Jack Ma. — Reuters

ONE by one they’ve flown the coop – Tencent, Weibo, Alibaba – all locally cultivated technology stars that are padding returns for investors to the tune of US$1.4 trillion, everywhere except China.

Together they make a bloc one-fifth the size of all the listed shares in Shanghai and Shenzhen. And more are coming: two-fifths of unicorns across the globe call China home. Their absence is sapping life from the world’s second largest stock market, leaving it clogged with state-controlled dinosaurs.