Chinese Search Giant Baidu Rethinking NASDAQ Listing
CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Richard, and I think, Facebook, the latest company to admit that some of these changes will be permanent. The company saying it was Zuckerberg in a town hall for employees that he broke us live on his own Facebook page saying that that 50 percent is not a target. But he expects over the next five to 10 years that they could see about half of their workforce shift to permanent work from home. Now, this is -- this is because he's listening to employees. He says they conducted an internal survey. And about 40 percent of people expressed an interest in continuing to work from home. And of those, 75 percent said that, in doing that, they would relocate to another location. So, Zuckerberg saying that he's going to start doing this by remote hiring, by allowing the company to hire engineering talent from within about four hours distance of some of its existing offices. So, that's for the beginning and then eventually they'll open it up to existing employees. So really, an admission, Richard, of just how big of a change this is and how people are unsure, executives are unsure about how long this will go on. But Zuckerberg also saying this will be helpful for Facebook, they have to retain and attract engineering talent and other talent. And he wants it to be -- you know, this is his lofty vision. He wants it to be helpful for the world, as well. He says that they need to sort of broaden our economic prosperity to other geographic regions, bring in other perspectives. And of course, we've seen this Richard, he thinks it will help the environment bring down commuting and the emissions from that.</s>QUEST: Clare Sebastian. Clare, thank you. The U.S. Senate has unanimously passed a bill that would require Chinese companies to comply with U.S. audit standards. It's a fairly Draconian measure. Companies that do not three years in a row will be removed from U.S. stock markets. Senators said they're meant to protect investors. Now, the Chinese search engine giant Baidu is considering a U.S. listing following that vote by the U.S. Senate. The CEO Robin Li told a statement in China Daily, it doesn't concern -- this is what he actually said. "The U.S. government is constantly tightening its control of Chinese companies listed in the U.S. Our basic judgment is that if you are a good company, there are many options on where to list. It is not limited to the United States." Matt Egan, is with us, CNN Business Senior Writer. And the idea first of all, that Chinese companies must comply with SEC audits. Now, is this if they're listed and doing business over here, I mean, what is this designed to do to catch U.S. companies in which way?</s>MATT EGAN, CNN BUSINESS SENIOR WIRTER: This is designed to protect U.S. investors. The problem when you talk to the sponsors of this legislation, they say is that Chinese companies are not playing by the rules. Beijing does not let U.S. accounting watchdogs inspect the audits of companies that are registered in China or Hong Kong. So, we're talking about China companies that are listed on U.S. exchanges. And there's no coincidence that this is happening that this bill passed the Senate, just weeks after the Luckin Coffee accounting scandal. The Chinese company, they had to fire their CEO, their COO, and that's because of these accounting irregularities that they have disclosed. And so, the problem is that there's not enough transparency. So, this bill would basically say that companies that don't open their books are not going to be allowed to list on Wall Street. I got off the phone with Senator Chris Van Hollen from Maryland, one of the co-sponsors of this bill. And he said, Listen, we're not trying to take on China. We just want them to play by the same rules as everyone else.</s>QUEST: But isn't this a case of caveat emptor for investors? If you know that you can't see the books of -- I can understand if it's a security issue, but if it's a straight investment question, you know, you pay your money, he takes your choice.</s>EGAN: I think so. I think that's -- that is a fair -- a fair statement. But we also have to remember that there's a lot of people that are investing in Chinese companies, and they may not actually realize they're doing it, right? You and I have money in mutual funds, we might have ETFs. And those funds may be investing in companies that are based in China. And we might not know that there's not as much transparency there. So, there is an accounting risk. But Richard, I mean, let's be honest, this is part of a broader issue, right? This is a broader crackdown between the United States and China. There is clearly a battle here going on. It's not just about securities. It's about national security. It's about technology and global supremacy. So, we're seeing it playing out right now in terms of Chinese stocks. But there's also this crackdown on Huawei. We saw NASDAQ is also proposing new securities restrictions as well. President Trump continues to talk about possibly imposing tariffs or sanctions on China. So, this is a broader issue and it's not going away. It's going to be playing out for the next few years.</s>QUEST: Matt Egan, Matt, thank you. France has always been number one in terms of foreign visitors, the destinations in the world. There's all sorts of logistical reasons why, but now the question is, how can France maintain that top status? Paris is also a way up there. After the break.