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Chinese embassy lobbies U.S. business to oppose China bills
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- WastingMyTime89 5y agoAm I the only one deeply amused that the title of this article is prefixed by “Exclusive” while its content basically boils down to: “The representatives of the Chinese government in the USA are doing their job: representing the interests of China”?
- stransky 5y agoIt is not normal.
- kasey_junk 5y agoIt’s one of the fundamental jobs of a foreign embassy to lobby on behalf of a countries trade & commercial interests. In the US, the Foreign Commercial Service (and to some degree the Foreign Agriculture Service) are explicitly tasked with this job.
- throwawaymanbot 5y agoThe language is kinda menacing.. but saying that..Why dont china work on their leaders thin skin first, then we can consider even listening to their BS.
- labster 5y agoAlso in the news: Dog Bites Man; Lead Considered Harmful
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- MeinBlutIstBlau 5y agoI wonder if the onset of globalization and offshoring US factories to China on top of Citizens United will be remembered as the US's "Fall of Rome" moment. The US essentially allowed the government to be bought and paid for by foreign entities and is relying on said countries for most manufactured goods. So now the other country can essentially say "Our laws are your laws otherwise we're not going manufacture your goods." China doesn't need to occupy us, they just need to buy us out.
- DaedPsyker 5y agoI'd say a good historical analogues (personal opinion ofc) would be the fall the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The political system was heavily fragmented and easily bought, and essentially foreign countries cheaply bought influence specifically to undermine the country. Selfishness doomed attempts at reform, and doomed the country as a whole.
- whearyou 5y agoTrue, hopefully the rule systems in the US are less ass backwards than they were in the PLC. Also as a Jewish person, a scary analog…
- shostack 5y agoI think you mean Citizen's United.
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- rp1 5y agoI think both Citizen's United and the allowance of asymmetric trade with China (e.g. China's currency manipulation, IP theft, restrictions on companies operating in China, etc.) are both symptoms of a much larger problem. The U.S. is being dismantled by the capitalist / owner class for personal profit. Very few decisions are made in the government that promote the long-term health of the system. This trend spans the administrations of both parties all the way back to Nixon.
- echelon 5y agoI don't understand why America, long a champion of immigration, doesn't open the floodgates back up. We could onshore factories and staff them from all over the world. Pay workers wages comparable to what they would get from working in factories at home (ie. not "US wages" since we can't compete on cost with China, Vietnam, etc.), but give them decent hours, a housing stipend, education for their kids, and a promise of US citizenship. Also offer them courses on American culture, English, etc. "Melting pot" rather than unsupported labor. We could make it really comfortable and attractive. To incentivize business, we could offer zero taxes over the next fifty years to run factories domestically. Start with the critical pieces, and then build everything. Growing beyond 300M would also dramatically increase our consumer base. To keep natural born citizens from getting angry, we can offer tax incentives for people having children. We can pay kids $20/week to study and get good grades (not a bad idea - it especially incentivizes poorer kids!). We can also grant credits for kids that excel in math/science, music/art, sports/club, etc. Keep them engaged and growing.
- markdown 5y agoThis sort of radical idea just can't get off the ground in the US two-party system. It would be too risky to invest in something so controversial that it could be reversed in less than four years.
- someperson 5y agoOK so you get 50 million people from Africa, India and other parts of Asia. Then what? What if half choose to immediately move to New York or Los Angeles to find a better job? Are you planning on keeping the 50 million factory workers imprisoned as second-class citizens in mid-West factories for the first 5 years? 10 years?
- zeusk 5y agoisn't that what H1B does? Tie a person to their employer?
- guidedlight 5y agoYou’re solution sounds similar to what places like Dubai are known for. i.e. Paying foreign impoverished wages in a wealthy country in exchange for work, housing, etc. Companies generally have a poor track record of investing in their employees.
- star-trek-fleet 5y agoNice example of how a foreign nation would exercise influence through business people. CCP saw the similar danger in Jack Ma and others, because of their natural tendency to align closer to US value (because they are capitalists), and their companies' listing on US stock exchange. It's only now that CCP start to play the same game. The rivalry between US and China is going to be interesting. I hope in the process other developing countries would gain much from these 2 big boys looking to influence people across the globe.
- arvigeus 5y ago"Promoting a China-free supply chain will inevitably result in a decline in China's demand for U.S. products and American companies loss of market share and revenue in China," Something that China had been pushing for years now…
- fumer 5y ago> Something that China had been pushing for years now… Given the source and the target of said message, it reads like a mob-like "you have a nice business here, it would be a shame if something happened to it".
- arcticbull 5y agoYes, this is a good point - the Chinese government has been encouraging full technological and also broader market independence at home for years now. Seems a strange talking point.
- AussieWog93 5y agoThey're about 10 years too late and completely tone deaf. I don't see much be progress coming from a reminder to foreign companies that their access to the Chinese domestic market is subject to the arbitrary decisions of the CCP's top brass.
- dirtyid 5y agoChinese embassy doing their usual jobs needs an article from reuters now?
- CyanBird 5y agoI mean, it *is* an effective propaganda weapon, just read around the thread for how so many commenters are othering a country of 1.3 billion people and trying to scheme and find ways to reassure themselves that "it will fail" for x, y, z reason. Completely tone deaf, and just outright evil in my perspective, seems that coexistence only works for the western Industrial Intellectual Complex approved governments. But again, the conscious and intelligent habits of the masses must be carefully considered and manipulated, and that is a core foundational stone of Democracy per Bernays
- adminscoffee 5y agountil china starts moving for better rights for their citizens, i am afraid they should be held at arms length. cannot trust a government that lies that over 1 million people are just being "re-educationed" and "happy" and "want to be there", there is a reason for distrust and it's not "xenophobic" to point out the regimes bs, the people of china deserve a better government. don't even get me started on hong kong. the whole situation is not fun
- BiteCode_dev 5y agoI agree. And we should also penalize any state that mass spy on their citizen, go to war against the UN decision while lying about WMD, teaches creationism in some shools and put mostly one ethnicity in privatized slave camps they call prison. Now if both those states would come to negotionate with each others, that would be interesting.
- intricatedetail 5y agoBizarre that you have not been downvoted to oblivion. Probably because you didn't use a keyword that summons bots.
- cromka 5y agoYou can only downvote on HN after you've acquired enough karma yourself. Bots can't do sh* here, thank you very much.
- intricatedetail 5y agoDo you think PR agencies don't maintain such accounts?
- scollet 5y agoAmazing.
- Der_Einzige 5y ago
- nabla9 5y agoThe U.S. has the best system of governance in the world. The members of Congress are selected by U.S. citizens and funded by international U.S based companies operating globally. This creates a delicate balance where the interests and goals of all major economies are balanced. The U.S citizens maintain full control of who they vote. At the same time the influencing working trough their mind, and trough their representatives ensures what they decide is for the benefit of the all. A small fraction of relatively ignorant individuals can vote freely with selfish motives, but the system still works as a global government. Everyone in the world who controls market access or money can have a voice.
- lordwarnut 5y agoThe U.S. has the best system of governance in the world. You must be joking or very ignorant.
- tsimionescu 5y ago> Everyone in the world who controls market access or money can have a voice. So, less than a million people out of the world's 7,000 million? I truly hope this is sarcasm.
- NoWayDude1 5y agoOf course it is!
- Synaesthesia 5y agoCongress is actually highly undemocratic when you look at it. Its heavily biased towards rural states with small populations: Montana has the same amount of senators as California. Its also a tremendously unpopular institution, the approval ratings have hovered at or below 10% for years.
- nabla9 5y agoIt's odd that you make an argument that democracy and popularity are important in response to the point I'm trying to make.
- scollet 5y agoCool Sinophobia ITT
- AussieWog93 5y agoDislike of the CCP is not Sinopobia, just as dislike of the Mob isn't anti-Italian. So many people really wish the CCP would just loosen their grip a bit so that foreigners/Westerners can have real, two-way relationships with Mainlanders. Honestly, at least in the circles I frequent, the biggest critics of the CCP are either (non-Mainland) Chinese themselves or Sinophiles. Other people simply don't care that much.
- onethought 5y agoDo you mean CCP are popular within PRC? But less popular outside in the Chinese diaspora?
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- AussieWog93 5y agoI would suspect what you said is true, but that wasn't my point. My point was simply that the CCP != China. They've put a huge amount of propaganda work into trying to conflate criticism of the party with hatred of the country (and by extension, the people in it), to the point where even foreigners start to drink the Kool-Aid. It's simply untrue, however.
- vbg 5y agoThe Chinese governments go/to response is to yell “racism!” whenever China is held to account or attacked. It’s genius really. They know that so many people have a deep instant response to the cry of racism and the CCP uses that to their advantage. In this way they masterfully play the west like a fiddle. They get all the people opposed to racism to stand up for China. And none of these anti Racists have a clue - they think they’re “doing the right thing” when in fact the CCP is laughing itself silly at these useful idiots. So yeah, “sinophobia” buddy, not a belligerent aggressive authoritarian bully state hell bent on subverting the political systems of the world to control everything. No, “sinophobia”.
- NoWayDude1 5y agoPlease raise your hands who read the article before commenting.
- Synaesthesia 5y agoThat's Democracy in action right? Institutions lobbying for their point of view.