Dialing for dollars: China pledges to end harassment of foreign businesses.
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[i[b]]Photo Above[/b] – Li Quiang is greeted in 2023 by dictator Xi Jinping as his new sock-puppet, um, I mean premier tasked with reviving the economy. Li's predecessor died 6 months after being removed from office. His official cause of death was "heart attack".[/i]
(Full disclosure – today's link is to the South China Morning Post, a state affiliated news outlet for the People's Republic of China. The publisher – Jack Ma – was recently detained by Chinese authorities and disappeared for several months. The website for the SMPC insisted on verifying my email address and other info before allowing me to read this article.)
Does anyone matter in China, other than president-for-life Xi Jinping? When you see a press release from “Li Quiang, 8th premier of the People's Republic of China”, do you believe it signals a change in policy? Mr. Li wants us to know China is sorry and is eager to be friends again. China is open(ish) for new investments, if anyone has money to burn.
I imagine China is especially interested in finding bidders for the billions of dollars in unfinished construction, following the collapse of Evergrande. Is there a minimum ante to sit at this poker table? Probably, but Li is cagey about how much it takes.
All this would be good news, except that China is currently suing: Amazon; Apple; Google; Meta; Tesla; and the tiny town of Green Charter, Michigan. That last lawsuit has something to do with zoning restrictions. The town objected to a giant EV battery factory close to residential areas. A concept which certainly might seem outlandish to Chinese authorities, who built a giant Bat Virus research lab in the heart of Wuhan - a city of 20 million people.
Okay, I get it - China sues lots of companies. So does the US government, for that matter. Half the corporations on the list of above are also being sued by the Biden administration. Maybe even some small town in Michigan (disclaimer - I haven't checked this out).
If you had an extra $500 billion to invest, would you take Li Quiang up on his offer? Would it matter that China still has nearly a million Uighur muslins in “re-education camps”? That Chinese jets menace Taiwan daily, amidst constant rhetoric of forced reunification? That the Chinese navy is regularly sideswiping Philippine fishing boats in a game of "deadliest catch/chicken"? That you can go to jail in China for using uncensored Google?
Opinions will vary on issues like that. But one thing you can count is the good old American desire to make a buck. Almost everything Apple sells in America is made in China. More than half all Teslas sold globally are made in China. More than half of everything sold on Amazon is made in China. At one point during the Pandemic someone analyzed the covid 19 masks for sale on Amazon. 97 out of the 100 they checked were made in China. Virtually none of them were KN95 compliant.
China is still spreading Covid 19 conspiracy theories. It's a US Army bio-weapon. Comes from wild caught salmon. From frozen shrimp. Hogs. Dogs. Bats. Pangolins. Frozen chicken parts.
Chinese trolls - as well as the South China Morning Post - are warning that the dollar is finished as a global currency. That the collapse of the USA is at hand. But Li wants America to know that they're ready to talk business, if we have some extra cash. Do we?
I'm just sayin' . . .
[u][b][i]China pledges to remove ‘unreasonable barriers and restrictions’ to help SMEs amid trade war | South China Morning Post (scmp.com)[/i][/b][/u]
