OPINION> FROM THE CHINESE PRESS
Lessons from Kellermann
(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-04-28 07:54

China should learn from the US when it comes to strict supervision of the performance of both companies and employees, says an article on the website gb.cri.cn. Excerpts:

Freddie Mac Acting Chief Financial Officer David Kellermann was found dead at his home on April 22 and the preliminary probe showed that he probably killed himself. It is suspected that he committed suicide because of the excessive pressure of his job.

The death of Kellermann has become the focus of the US and the international community. Since the economic crisis started last year in the US, the financial sector and its leading figures have been severely blamed by the public. The financial big guns and corporate leaders have been portrayed as "monsters" and "chief criminals". The collapse of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, the two largest mortgage finance lenders in the US, triggered the explosion of the crisis; and these lenders have had to face unprecedented pressures, of the kind that can kill.

In this situation, the all-round supervision in the US has created huge pressure on the corporate executives involved, driving them to find a way out of the crisis and strive for recovery. The self-correcting and remedial mechanisms could find the US back on the track of prosperity sooner than expected.

The death of Kellermann and the pressures faced by US companies and employees have given China quite a lot of food for thought. Are Chinese enterprises, especially State enterprises, too complacent in the face of crisis? Have the nation and the government exerted enough pressure on our State enterprises? Is the scrutiny of these enterprises by the public, the press and the internal corporate monitoring system diligent enough to keep the enterprises and the management on a tight leash? Is there anyone in the management who may crack under the strain?

One certainty is that if China's State enterprises were to face the same pressure as US companies, they would perform much better than they have until now.

(China Daily 04/28/2009 page8)