Original Link

This is a series of articles published by Kai Fu Lee. I did the translation after graduation from university in summer to learn more about the technology trend and practise my translation skill.

---

Translation of Kaifu Lee’s post on LinkedIn - War on China Short Sellers

李开复LinkedIn文章翻译之五 - 对中概股做空者的宣战

For the past few years, a number of “China Short Sellers” have been publishing negative reports on Chinese companies (typically listed in the US). In the beginning, they targeted truly problematic companies, but recently some of these “China Short Sellers” started targeting legitimate companies.

过去几年中，一些“中概股做空者”发布了很多关于中国公司（通常是在美国上市了的）的负面报告。一开始，他们针对的是那些真的有问题的公司，但是最近他们中的一些人开始把枪口转向合法的公司了。

They would first short the shares, and then publish a report that contains inaccurate and false information, causing large drops in stock prices, knowing that the American readers would have no way of verifying the information, and that the Chinese companies do not know how to fight back.

他们会先卖空股票，然后发布一份包含不准确和虚假信息的报告，导致股票价格大幅度下降，因为他们了解美国的读者无法验证这些信息的真伪，中国的公司也不知道如何去反击。

This has been changed recently. A group of Chinese businessmen have been responding to one particular short seller, Citron Research, by: writing a paper exposing eight major errors in a Citron report on China video and search markets (for example demonstrating Citron totally misunderstood the core product offered by the company being reviewed, which Citron has subsequently admitted), writing another paper disproving another accusation made by Citron on China games market. All of the above have been captured by a website called citronfraud.com.

这种现象最近已经有所改观。一些中国商人已经开始对其中某个做空机构，香橼研究，作出回应，通过以下几种手段：写了一份揭露香橼关于中国视频和搜索市场报告8大错误的文章（例如证实香橼完全不懂被审查的公司提供的核心产品，香橼随后也承认了这点）；另外还写了一份反驳香橼对中国游戏市场的指控的文章。所有以上的文章都收录在一个叫citronfraud.com的网站里。

Citron’s reaction is also very telling. It responds first by enumerating its historical performance (not relevant to the very specific errors pointed out). It then resorted to personal attacks. It finally threatens lawsuit (but it avoids addressing any of the specific errors called out).

香橼的回应也很能说明问题。它首先列举了自己之前的表现（跟现在这些特定的错误毫无关系）。然后它又进行了人身攻击。最后香橼威胁要用法律来解决这些问题（但它完全回避了这些被提出的明确错误）。

But these tactics will not work. Today, several legal actions were initiated, including one by Qihoo 360, the company attacked six times by Citron, and another by myself addressing defamation. At courts of law, the discovery process will prove the severity of Citron’s errors, and also uncover what’s really behind the Citron – is it a one-man show, or are there more powerful people behind it.

但是这些诡计是不会得逞的。几个法律诉讼现在都已发起，包括奇虎360的一个诉讼，这家公司被香橼攻击了6次，另一个由我发起以澄清诽谤。整个发现的过程会在法庭上证明香橼错误的严重性，也揭露香橼背后到底是谁的谜团 – 这到底是一个独角戏，还是幕后有更强大的黑手呢？

Short selling is a fine practice, and there is no problem with writing analysis. But if the analysis provided is false, it seriously hurts the companies and other investors. This kind of practice must stop, or be stopped.

做空是一种很好的手段，写分析报告也没有任何问题。但是一旦这些分析所提供的是假的，它就会严重地伤害到一些公司和其他的投资者。这种行为必须停止，或被严令禁止。

For more information, see www.citronfraud.com

更多信息请看: www.citronfraud.com.