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The Wall Street Journal, on 24 September, reported that multinational companies operating in China are feeling the effects of China’s policies that show favoritism toward Chinese state-owned companies; a survey by the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai showed an increase in companies feeling the pinch of such favoritism, especially in fields like technology, pharmaceuticals and medical devices; see “CHINA CHALLENGING U.S. HI-TECH DOMINANCE” (13 Jul 2021).
Also impacting foreign companies’ operations are China’s strict border controls, put in place since March 2020 in reaction to COVID-19. Companies wishing to send workers and executives into China face hurdles such as limited granting of visas (with special government approval needed to enter China) and quarantines of up to 28 days.
Similar outlooks were expressed in an annual report by the E.U. Chamber of Commerce in China, which also forecast that state-owned enterprises would have a greater role in China’s economy; China will be buying more “Made in China” products. The E.U. Chamber’s president observed that “China is all about balancing growth and control. Now, control is more important.”
TREND FORECAST: We maintain our forecast that the 21st century will be China’s and America will not be able to defeat the communist nation militarily or economically.
As we have detailed for decades, before U.S. and European nations moved their manufacturing to China to use cheap labor so they could mark up their prices when they sold their goods back home and around the world, China was a struggling nation.
Again, the business of China is business. The business of America is war. Indeed, we reported in this Trends Journal the record breaking U.S. military budget. (See “WAR MACHINE GETS RICHER AS AMERICANS GET POORER: HOUSE EASILY PASSES $768 BILLION DEFENSE BILL”)
Thus, while America builds its war machine, China builds its infrastructure and national economy.
Back in 2017, President Xi Jinping made it perfectly clear at the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China that the country must focus on the economy. He said the state will invest capital to turn Chinese enterprises into world-class competitive firms.
Politicians lie, but numbers don’t. Take a look at the decline of America and the advancement of China. The trend is undeniable.
America’s middle-income household has shrunk from 61 percent in 1971 to 50 percent today. China’s grew from 5 percent in 2000, just before it joined the World Trade Organization, to nearly 35 percent today.
Xi pledged to increase modernization and improve people’s ever-growing needs for a better life, for a strong, culturally advanced, harmonious and beautiful nation.
You never hear words such as “culturally advanced,” “harmonious” and “beautiful” spoken by U.S., or European leaders.
And, now, as we have been reporting, Xi is clamping down on big tech and big businesses in what he is selling as an effort to bring income equality to the nation.