SMIC: Good news, bad news

It is good news for SMIC's fabs that Simon Yang is back at SMIC as COO, which SMIC announced on February 9. Unfortunately, the board now is completely controlled by directors linked to the government, which was not the case as recently as a year ago. This situation cannot be good for the firm's governance and replicates the situation David N. K. Wang had with the heavy hand of the government when he was CEO of what the government originally promised would be a new improved "market-oriented" Hua Hong. The brand new Year of Tiger (though technically still Feb. 13 i.e. 除夕 here in London) will certainly be a fearsome challenge for SMIC's management.