Go east, my son

摘要

Last December Lenovo, China's biggest computer maker, pulled off a coup when it pinched Bill Amelio, the American head of Asia-Pacific for Dell Computer, to be its chief executive. In June Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp (SAIC), the mainland's largest car company, managed a similar trick: it appointed Phil Murtaugh, a General Motors veteran who until last year was boss of GM in China, as head of its international operations. And last week David Wei, the China president of B&Q, a British do-it-yourself chain, said he was defecting to Alibaba.com, a Chinese online business-trading site and the world's biggest. Mr Wei is ethnically Chinese, but spent a decade at multinationals abroad and in China.