China, heralded by some as a rising superpower, is never of want to be in the worldwide spotlight, and recent news has been no exception: censorship issues surrounding Google and an arguably fixed-rate currency have been prominent topics within the last week. Surrounding these talking points was the relevant issue of international business inside China and its surrounding problems.
The fundamental issue in US-China business relations is the absolute difference of economy: free-market vs. controlled market. Businesses inside America operate largely without government interference, excepting certain industry regulation, and the market operates essentially as a capitalistic free-for-all. China, however, only pretends to have a capitalist market within a communist environment, issuing pronouncements, instituting intervention policies, and awarding preferential treatment to certain native corporations.
Censorship within China is not new, and has only become recently intriguing due to the fact that a company, Google, chose to end their participation in the subjugation of that nation’s people instead of acquiescing like so many other business enterprises. It is this principle of government-mandated information flow, in combination with influenced markets, that presents a worrisome problem to the world-at-large: one of the most populous nations in the world continues to believe they can augment reality, fairness, and opinions by simply demanding subservience.
A nation that is to have great international influence should be one with politics and policies amenable to the rest of the world – a fact that China simply fails to understand. Attempting to be the center of all that is business requires a certain acceptance of reality and outside influence, which seems to point to China simply not becoming the superpower that they, and some critics, believe is inevitable. Communist Russia, at the height of its imperialist period, was simply incompatible with much of the Western World, and the People’s Republic of China is no different in this regard.
World business leaders should refuse to trade within China’s borders until censorship is abolished, and a slew of other communist controls are relaxed. In the knowledge, however, that this is highly improbable, it’s far better to understand that the rise of the Red Nation will be substantially hampered, if not prevented entirely, by their insistence on lies, deceit, tradition, and subjugation. The China Problem, while wholly internal, will have a great effect on the coming decade, and it does not bode well for the overall future of a worldwide economy.
From Kyle Brady…
Kyle can be found on his blog, on Facebook, via email, or on Twitter.
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