Remember Hong Kong
I've written quite a bit about the Hong Kong protests - here, on learning from Hong Kongers and here, on the end of soft power and here, with some sympathy for the Hong Kong police.
It feels like we are approaching the end.
Crash-out (2)
update at November 13, 2019 to Crash out -
Crash out may not happen. We will find out in January. But the wounding of the British economy is happening as we type, and this piece in Foreign Policy - Chinese Firms Can't Avoid Being Party Tools - is a good example of how and why Brexit is great for business ... in China.
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.
News: IP theft - no more worries
Just a brief note - the FBI has more than 1,100 China IP theft cases pending against Chinese entities or individuals. Not a typo - 1,100.
For American companies not doing business in China - we should not say, no exposure to China - the FBI investigations may still be something of a bulwark against theft. Although, one notes, most of the investigations and arrests are in arrears of the crime.
And back nearly a year ago, Mr. Xi promulgated a new IP theft policy which threatened Chinese businesses that steal. The policy was announced within hours of a Xi-Trump meeting last December, and comprised a coordinated efforts across 38 Chinese government agencies with 38 different punishments. The insincerity of this announcement, coming immediately upon the leaders' meeting, was palpable. If you want to believe, you may. I wrote about this at the time in Everything new is old again.
But with a new Chinese government policy, IP theft in China is no more.
Deer in the headlights
Aggressive moves by the government have sensitized the world to Chinese export of skullduggery, lying, theft, and threats to foreigners in their own country by Chinese organizations in business and government. Infiltration of politics and government in Australia and New Zealand has become a recurring story.
Unfortunately, such actions can bias some people against Chinese everywhere. So - what to make of Gladys Liu?
Update at October 7, 2019 - The NBA self-censors for China
The NBA is a business - we know that. But the NBA has been the professional league in which players and coaches have had the most freedom to speak their minds about issues of rights and morality. Now, apparently, that freedom of speech stops at the Chinese border. The New York Times has the story - NBA executive's Hong Kong tweet starts firestorm in China.
Daryl Morey, the general manager of the Houston Rockets, tweeted an expression of support for protesters in Hong Kong. This upset the Chinese Basketball Association, and some Chinese fans, who see Hong Kongers as only hooligans and destroyers of Chinese harmony. Morey's tweet suggested that he "stands with Hong Kong." He has now apologized to the NBA's largest international market. The NBA has disavowed his comment, although it did suggest weakly that he had a right to say what he said. Of course, the Chinese league commented with the old trope, that Morey had hurt the feelings of all Chinese people (who are basketball fans).
