However grey the definitions may have once been surrounding the ownership of Haier, they were soon clarified. With no prior warning, the Qingdao agency in charge of government enterprises announced in April 2004 that Haier was owned by the state. The Hong Kong deal was killed. Haier and its managers, for the moment, were not going anywhere. The Haier case was a signal reminder that a company could be privately run one day and find itself claimed as a state asset the next.
