Deng Xiaoping had it about right: one country, two systems.

Four months ago foreign lenders to China’s Asia Aluminum, the region’s largest housing-frame maker, drove it into provisional liquidation, having rejected its deeply discounted offers to buy the debt back. A Hong Kong court last week agreed a sale to management for US$475m. Holders of $535m of payment-in-kind notes, who were lending to the offshore holding company, will get less than a cent in the dollar. Senior unsecured bondholders, owed $450m by the onshore operating company – where all the assets are – will get 20.