China Unicom chief an artful dodger
It is always a tough job facing critical shareholders, but Chang Xiaobing, the newly appointed chairman and chief executive of China Unicom, knows how to use his wit when put on the defensive.
At the company's full-year results announcement last week, Mr Chang was asked to make a choice between his company's GSM business and the struggling CDMA network: which one did he think was tougher to manage?
He picked neither. On the mainland, xiaolingtong networks were by far the most difficult to operate.
As the former president of dominant fixed-line player China Telecom, Mr Chang was responsible for developing strategies for the carrier's xiaolingtong business.
While citywide mobile service put competitive pressure on China Unicom and China Mobile, it was never considered a real threat to mobile operators due to a lack of roaming capability.
