The FT reports:

In the media reports about offshore acquisitions by Chinese companies, the myriad diverse buyers are usually described in headlines and electronic tickers in a single word: “China”.

It is a convenient compression. Autonomous as they may claim to be, every Chinese state enterprise, be it Minmetals, the Bank of China or Shanghai Automotive, answers ultimately to the ruling Communist party. So what then are we to make of the high-profile spat between two of China’s three big state airline groups, Air China, the national carrier, and China Eastern, based in Shanghai?

Air China blocked China Eastern's planned tie-up with Singapore Airlines last week by persuading the Shanghai group's minority shareholders to vote against it. Air China's parent, much to China Eastern's very public ire, is now contemplating a bid of its own for the same shares.

The headline “China blocks China alliance, prepares bid for China” does not cut it in this case, even if the players involved have tried to spin the affair as nothing more than a fight in the family.

“The three big airline companies in China have the same boss, so the three sons have the same father,” Li Fenghua, chairman of China Eastern, joked grimly after the defeat of his plan by Air China. “I won't complain to the father about what the elder brother has done to us and we will try to be a good son – that is all we can do.”

To read more:

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/520bef96-c44c-11dc-a474-0000779fd2ac,dwp_uuid=9c33700c-4c86-11da-89df-0000779e2340.html