NucTech, Namibia and State Procurement

The corruption scandal in Namibia involving NucTech (link), a firm spun-off from Tsinghua and run by Hu Jintao's son (Hu Haifeng) until he was promoted to head Tsinghua Holdings last May, reminds me of my visit to NucTech a number of years ago when it still had Tsinghua attached to its name. The company seemed to be reliant on state procurement rather than leveraging any internal capabilities just like many other xiaoban qiye (school-run enterprises). The ongoing probe by the EU to look into allegations that NucTech used soft loans from the Chinese government to win customers in the EU (link) suggests that state backing is still critical to its business.