Macroaggressions
From America Online - Several billionaires have recently criticized the wealth tax proposal of presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA). And fellow lawmaker Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) has come to her aid. AOC: 'Y’all, the billionaires are asking for a safe space'
But perhaps the billionaires threatened with having to pay taxes almost like the rest of us have learned how to do political threats from their experience with China.
China can threaten the NBA based on a single vague tweet from an otherwise obscure NBA general manager. A China so afraid of a tweet is a China willing to transform a nonaggression into a macroaggression, and needs special care and handling from the world. Perhaps CCP doesn't get sufficient love from its family at home.
China is clearly looking for a safe space in the world. The Chinese mentality is that China is constantly under attack from the barbarians, whether it is xiongnu in the north two thousand years ago or the western barbarians whose sinister plans to destroy CCP and China were exposed in 2013 by Mr. Xi in Document No. 9.
And maybe China has learned from the NBA – the best defense is a good offense.
So China has created a safe space for itself by threatening multinational corporations everywhere, and by caving to the tantrum the multinationals have temporarily created a safe space in which to do business until the next unfortunate lower level employee tweet, or some corporate employee’s kid in Kansas draws a map in school showing Taiwan as an independent country.
Now the companies and their owners are seeking a safe space from the horror of paying more in taxes in the US.
CCP has a safe space. The billionaires have a temporary safe space in China, and now seek a safe space from AOC in the US. The US Congress – at least the Senate – has a safe space behind the orange haired baboon.
What would be a safe space for the rest of us, concerned not only about taxes but free expression?
Attached, a list – soon to be outdated – of multinationals which don’t remember first they came for the socialists. From Lucas Niewenhuis at Supchina, All the International brands that have apologized to China.
The definitive list of international companies that have issued apologies to maintain their market access in China in recent years. Plus, a record of the even more widespread phenomenon of self-censorship for the Chinese market.
Read the whole list. Fun and shame, at the same time.
PS - Remember that China creates a safe space for multinationals only temporarily. Foreigners can be had in more sophisticated ways than blocking markets. I wrote about this in IP Theft - No More Worries and Steve Dickinson at ChinaLawBlog follows up his prior posts with this below. Anything encoded by a foreign company - patent information, employee information, market information, customers, clients, revenues - will be available - without asking - to CCP.
China’s New Cryptography Law: Still No Place to Hide
....
So in the end, inviting foreign providers and users of cryptography is just a trap for the unwary. Once data crosses the Chinese border on a network, 100% of that data will be 100% available to the Chinese government and the CCP. Cryptography may work well to prevent access by the public, but all this data will be an open book to the PRC government.
This then raises major issues for U.S. and other country entities that are relying on end to end encryption in China as an exception to U.S. export control rules. Under China’s new system, end to end encryption will no longer exist in China and for this reason this exemption from U.S. export controls will no longer be effective. As the U.S. expands the scope of technology subject to export controls, the risks for foreign companies will become progressively more significant.
No place for a multinational to hide - at least in China. Safe space is always in the eyes of the aggrieved.
