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China Suspects Its 'Car-Eating,' Traffic-Straddling Bus Is a Total Scam (qz.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the too-good-to-be-true dept.

China's "Transit Elevated Bus" or TEB-1 made headlines last year for its futuristic design that let it straddle two lanes of traffic, allowing cars to pass under it. Now, that very bus is the focus of an investigation. According to Quartz, "police in Beijing announced that it had started an investigation into the company behind the TEB for alleged illegal fundraising." From the report: More than 30 people associated with Huaying Kailai, an online financing platform that has been selling an investment product to raise money from individual investors to develop the bus, have been held, said Beijing's Dongcheng district police bureau in a statement (link in Chinese) on microblogging site Weibo. The statement added that the police is working to recover funds from the firm, and advised TEB investors to report their complaints to local police stations. Huaying Kailai couldn't be reached for comment. The number listed on its website is invalid and a message to the email provided bounced back. Bai Zhiming, who runs Huaying Kailai and is also chief executive of TEB Technology Development, a Beijing-based company that purchased the patent for the elevated bus, was among those detained, according to the police statement. Bai bills himself as "the father of the TEB" on Weibo. Days after the Qinghuangdao government announced the TEB track's demolition, Bai told Chinese media that the bus would be relocated to another Chinese city.

7 of 59 comments (clear)

  1. Flost tosp by Hognoxious · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Looks like somebody didn't bribe the right people. Schoolboy error, that.

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    1. Re:Flost tosp by rmdingler · · Score: 3, Informative

      Yep. This could never happen here.

      --
      Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

      Ernest Hemingway

    2. Re:Flost tosp by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 2

      The people executed were political opponents of Xi Jinping. Their arrests and executions had very little to do with "corruption".

      Xi's term in office ends in 2022. By then, he will have completed the purge, stuffed the central committee with his cronies, and should have no problem getting rubber stamp approval to extend his term "for the good of the nation".

  2. More stories about Kardashians please! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I don't want to read about a stupid chinaman's elevated bus.

  3. Welcome to the rough and tumble world of China by Ritz_Just_Ritz · · Score: 2

    The financial markets are a joke and there is zero transparency into the banking and investment banking businesses. If you know the right people, you ride their coattails to riches (which you quickly slip out of the country into banks in first world countries along with your corrupt partners in crime, the very government officials who are supposed to be monitoring and regulating the industry). Otherwise, you may as well be playing roulette.

    Enjoy the ride.

    1. Re:Welcome to the rough and tumble world of China by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 2

      So...just like the US, eh?

      No. The opposite of the US. China has the world's biggest trade surplus, yet the value of their currency is falling. That reason is that much of the surplus is leaking out of the country into offshore investments. China has implemented capital controls, but those are easy to work around, and actually increase the desire to get money out before restrictions get even worse.

      America has the world's biggest deficits, Yet the dollar is rising. A big reason is that America is the biggest destination for investment, despite having perverse tax laws that discourage capital inflows.

  4. Clearance by denbesten · · Score: 2

    Pretty much anything that depends on others to stay in their lane is doomed to failure. Investors not considering this will get the results they deserve. Better take the losses now then after a car takes out a "leg".