Posted on 12/04/2021 8:04:45 PM PST by SeekAndFind
Foreign firms doing business in China should be aware of the costs of transacting with a totalitarian regime that controls everything in society and can easily bend any company to its will.
Heads of U.S. corporations don’t dare to criticize the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) even in private settings. They know Big Brother is always watching them.
JPMorgan boss Jamie Dimon’s quick apology over a joke he made recently about the country’s communist regime provides a good example of how business leaders fear retribution from Beijing.
Clyde Prestowitz, author and strategist on Asia and globalization, explains the true cost of doing business in China in his latest book “The World Turned Upside Down: America, China, and the Struggle for Global Leadership.” He was a presidential advisor and a leader of the first American trade mission to China in 1982.
The U.S. companies that are highly coupled with China face all kinds of risks, from intellectual property theft to commercial cyber espionage. But the biggest, most fundamental risk is “the loss of free speech,” Prestowitz says in his book.
Dimon is not alone as there are many examples of free-world CEOs and presidents making apologies or backtracking when they anger the Chinese regime.
During Hong Kong protests in 2019, for example, Apple pulled from its app store a map application widely used by pro-democracy protestors that showed the location of police patrols and tear gas deployments, citing security reasons. The move was made after Chinese state media piled pressure calling for the app’s removal. Google also sparked controversy when it removed a Hong Kong protest role-playing game from its app store.
These are by no means the only apparently self-censorship incidents by U.S tech companies. Apple, for example, removed nearly 55,000 active apps from its app store in China since 2017, according to a New York Times report. They include apps made by minorities oppressed by the regime, including Uyghurs and Tibetans.
Over the years, the list of entities that have caved to Beijing’s censorship demands has grown long. The Gap, Disney, Delta Airlines, Medtronic, Marriott, the NBA, and many others have all bowed to the Chinese regime over issues ranging from Taiwan to Uyghurs to Hong Kong.
Such actions by U.S. firms, though, have drawn criticism from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, who accuse companies of sacrificing American values for the allure of profits in the world’s second-largest economy.
For the CEO of Apple Tim Cook and other U.S. corporate executives navigating the Chinese market, they effectively become “hostages” to the whims of the Chinese regime.
“They may be perceived as the heads of American companies, but they fear Beijing far more than they fear Washington,” Prestowitz writes in his book.
Since there’s no rule of law in China, they become “captive,” he adds. In Washington, they have lawyers and lobbyists that give them the power to influence or sue the U.S. government. In Beijing, however, they can’t sue the Chinese regime because they know they would lose—the courts in China are controlled by the Communist Party—and would face retaliation from the regime for even trying.
Beijing is aware of this leverage and hence can freely use companies as a tool. As I wrote in a previous column, the Chinese Embassy in Washington is pressuring U.S. companies and trade groups that have business interests in China to lobby against a comprehensive China bill that aims to enhance U.S. competitiveness and hold Beijing accountable for its human rights abuses.
According to Prestowitz, entities that are under pressure could be giants like Walmart, Apple, General Electric, and FedEx as well as organizations like the U.S.-China Business Council.
None of this should come as a surprise. As The Epoch Times readers will know, China exerts significant influence in the United States. It spent more than $67 million on lobbyists last year, a sixfold increase since 2016, according to OpenSecrets.
And this is only the tip of the iceberg, as it only covers the overt influence operations that need to be disclosed under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).
The FARA, passed in 1938, requires a person who represents a foreign interest to register as a foreign agent. The law, however, falls short in addressing less overt political influence operations conducted through proxies, including corporations, trade associations, and think tanks. Many China hawks in Washington are urging Congress to close this loophole in foreign influence.
“It’s really something that must be addressed,” Prestowitz tells me.
If heads of corporations have substantial business operations in China, “they should not be allowed to make political donations in the United States,” he said.
“When they testify before Congress, they should be compelled to declare that they are testifying as the leaders of Chinese businesses. They should be made to tell the public and the Congress that they in fact, are subject to pressure and influence by the Chinese Communist Party.”
Perfect.
Related:
Curious Why US News Networks Are Supportive of Chinese Government? Just Look at the Corporate Ownership
https://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3838407/posts
You are a noob but a good one. Keep posting. Good job!!!
I agree with tariffs because China does not have to abide by our strict environmental or OSHA laws. So those in the US who want those restrictions are not paying the extra cost, it is paid for by those who lose their jobs to a Chinese worker who may work in nasty conditions for 12 hour shifts.
Make Americans directly pay by a “environmental/ worker safety” tax on every item that is imported from China, to balance out what the corporations are NOT paying by being located there. Make it clear and transparent so people really weigh the differences.
The gloBULLists love the current system of taxing citizens income tax while allowing 3rd worlders to dump product here duty free. That kind of greed is just wrong, even demented to some degree. As I see it, true conservatives should love the tariff and hate the income tax. Tariffs are a consumption tax and some would even call regressive. Again all true conservatives should love tariffs.
A couple of really interesting exposes on this subject
BlackRock https://youtu.be/CjQ5TdUVvN0
China: Built by Us https://youtu.be/8CMdbgKTSjA
Made in China. https://youtu.be/s4-cgO4ENTc
All from Sovereign Nations youtube channel. Very thought provoking
This one is a more visual/ fast /graphical
Monopoly: Who owns the World? https://youtu.be/UNg3Vnfu4Pk. Might be good for a millennial who is open and starting to wonder about things.
I believe there is a lot of working together, promoting the same goals between BR, Vanguard, CCP, Soros, Gates etc. But at the same time a lot of jockeying for position, who will be king of the hill? ( or of the pile of rubble when they get finished? ) It’s like expecting a bunch of drug cartels to rule together over a territory. The will eventually start fighting each other.
That’s why they get the name globullists ( like that). They have absolutely no love or patriotism for our country. They don’t care if it all comes crashing down, as long as they have a market somewhere in the world to continue making money and selling their junk.
If we have a backbone, our economic engagement is supposed to give us some clout. Like the argument of doing business with apartheid-era South Africa; the more involved we were, the more pull we had to reform apartheid. Sadly, only Trump seemed to have the stomach for standing up to the ChiComs.
That would be preferable.
Good plan.
I’m less worried about the American businesses who think their bread is buttered by China than all the US politicians on BOTH SIDES of the aisle who are owned lock, stock, and barrel by China. I haven’t identified one yet who is not.
“The Capitalists will sell us the rope we will hang them with.”
And if we can overcome the Fraud Machine, the very first thing Trump must do, is to make voter fraud impossible.
That's your solution?! More robots?!
There are tens of millions of U.S. Americans who would then be unable to compete with those robots for jobs. What would you recommend that we do with them?
Regards,
Oh! It’s so big! It feels so good! Yes! Yes! Harder! Ooooh! You were wonderful, darling! That’ll be a hundred fifty bucks. Leave it on the night table. Next!
The opening to China was justified by the opinion that over the time China will become like the US.
Instead US is becoming like China!
Amen. I used to argue against businesses leaving the USA on this site back in 2000! Took alot of heat for it. I refuse to feel anything for those companies. They ruined so many lives by forcing the middle class into the poor class. I hope China reams them a new one. They earned it.
Ecclesiastes 10:20
Do not revile the king even in your thoughts,
or curse the rich in your bedroom,
because a bird in the sky may carry your words,
and a bird on the wing may report what you say.
Repent.
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