While the Bible remains the best-selling book in history, the second best-selling book has long been Atlas Shrugged by the late Ayn Rand, the iconoclastic mother of Libertarians.  The premise of her classic is that America’s business leaders keep disappearing.  Conspiracy-lovers suspect the government is kidnapping them, swooping them away in black helicopters.  As it turns out, however, they have all fled to a secret hiding place, because they can no longer tolerate governmental control of every minute detail in their lives, especially in their businesses.

As much as I enjoyed the book when I read it some 50 years ago, I found the premise implausible, because the “government” is not competent enough to accomplish much of anything and certainly not anything as complicated and far-flung as a mass kidnapping.

However, something is happening in China!  Many of their top business leaders have recently disappeared.  Some have reappeared but without explanation.  Some may have disappeared forever.  Li Hejun was chairman of energy giant Hanergy who unexpectedly failed to show up at the annual meeting in May, causing the stock to drop a stunning 47% in one hour.  The CEO of China Aircraft has also disappeared.  There is some speculation that CEOs are disappearing due to the government’s anti-corruption drive.  Maybe . . .

But, many of the disappearances have been among bankers and brokers.  For example, the CEOs of both the China Minsheng Bank and Guotai Junan International have also disappeared.  There is some speculation that the central government is seeking to punish anybody who may have contributed to the Shanghai market crash in August.  Maybe . . .

The Chinese do not hesitate when executing “wrong-doers.”  But, there have been no reports of CEOs being executed, just disappearing.  At least, not yet . . .

Would you like to be the CEO of a Chinese company?