How lack of transparency is making China a safe haven for investors

China, where the single-party state ensures tight monitoring of its citizens' access to information, presents other challenges than outcries over perceived privacy violations.

Call it regulatory arbitrage. While big Internet champions in developed democracies are running into challenges with authorities cracking down over privacy-protection concerns, their counterparts in China have little such problem, and that can make for better investment performance, according to PineBridge Investments.

The distinction has been important in navigating the volatility in technology stocks in recent weeks, says Sunny Ng, a Hong Kong-based multi-asset portfolio manager with PineBridge, which oversaw $85 billion at the end of 2017. Ng’s team runs the $53.3 million PineBridge Asia Balanced Fund, which has Tencent Holdings Ltd. and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. among its Top 10