China’s trying to attract foreign investment,
But it enacted a foreign relations law
That will kill foreign business
Welcome to China Uncensored. I’m Chris Chappell.
The Chinese Communist Party wants foreigners to invest within the country.
So it’s trying really, really hard to convince everyone that its economy is doing great.
The economy grew 4.5 percent in the first quarter, the fastest pace in a year.
Of course, “fastest pace in a year” really isn’t saying much considering that a year ago,
China didn’t have an economy because everyone was locked down under the insane zero-Covid policy.
Last week, Chinese Premier Li Qiang performed the opening address at the World Economic
Forum’s 14th Annual Meeting of the New Champions in the Chinese city of Tianjin.
He said China’s economy is growing fast.
So foreign friends, why not bring your business and your money to China.
Quit talking about “decoupling” and “de-risking”. That’s a “false proposition.”
Everyone should just keep doing business with China. Nevermind
that the CCP is an authoritarian, genocidal regime. Focus on its GDP!
“From what we see this year, China’s economy shows a clear momentum of rebound and improvement”
“We have full confidence and the ability to achieve the steady growth of the Chinese economy
on the track of high quality development in a long time to come.”
Wow, that sounds great, but if China had that much confidence,
then why did it silence people who raised concerns about the economy?
Is it because China’s GDP numbers are man made and unreliable?
In reality, many are worried about China’s economy. One
of them is a prominent journalist, Wu Xiaobo .
He compared China’s economic situation to the Great Depression,
which is the last thing China wants people to hear.
Well, besides everything on this channel.
That’s actually our tagline.
That’s why China censored Wu, claiming that he and two other writers “attacked
and undermined” Chinese policy and spread “negative and harmful information.”
According to content moderators, the three writers were also “spreading smears against
the development of the securities market” and “hyping up the unemployment rate”.
As a result, China’s version of Twitter scrubbed Wu’s page of content from April 2022 onwards.
If China’s trying so hard to hide how bad it’s doing, then it’s a
sign that foreign businesses should’ve gotten out of China, like, yesterday.
The signs are everywhere.
Youth unemployment rose even higher in May to new records,
China’s stock market is losing momentum,
And China’s property developers have made little progress restructuring their debt.
On top of that, audits have found that local governments have exaggerated their
own revenue, adding billions more to China’s multi-trillion-dollar hidden debt problem.
Communists lying to their leaders to make themselves look better? That is
definitely not something that would ever happen.
Some people even predict that China’s economic recovery is “doomed to fail”.
That’s why some foreign investors are pulling out of Chinese markets.
But others, not naming names, just can’t seem to quit.
Which will come back to bite them. Because China has a new foreign relations law,
and those relations are complicated. I’ll tell you why after the break.
Welcome back.
China has a bunch of new laws that will kill foreign business in China.
First, there’s a counter espionage law that just went into effect. And
it is so vague, it’s like if the ending of Inception was a piece of legislation.
What does it mean? It’s up to your interpretation!
For example, it says it aims “to protect the people's interests.”
What does that mean?
Means more raids on foreign companies. And detaining more foreign executives.
Because what makes the nation feel more secure than knowing
the government can detain people for no good reason any time they want?
“Under the terms of this sweeping new law, all investigation activity and data
gathering in China — printed, electronic or oral — can be effectively outlawed as
‘espionage.’ This could be the fate now awaiting many due diligence professionals
and consultants in China — or even just ordinary businesses and their staff.”
It’s no surprise that this would make a lot of people nervous—especially investors.
But Chinese leader Xi Jinping tries to play down investors’ concerns.
According to state-run media, Xi vowed to New Zealand’s prime minister to protect
the rights and interests of foreign investors. And would he ever lie?
That’s the counter-espionage law. And on the same day that went into effect,
so did China’s new Foreign Relations Law. It's arguably worse.
Chinese state-run media say it will safeguard China’s national interests!
And give “an unequivocally clear picture of China's independent foreign policy of peace”.
Because when I think of peaceful foreign policies, I *definitely* think of China.
And for anyone who says, “What about Taiwan?” Well,
that obviously a part of China, so that’s not *foreign* policy at all!
The Foreign Relations Law is a response to US sanctions over things like China’s brutal
treatment of Xinjiang and Hong Kong, support for Russia in the Ukraine war,
exports of fentanyl precursors, and a lotmore. But yeah, China’s definitely the peaceful one here.
That’s why My favorite state-run media,
The Global Times, calls the Foreign Relations Law a “legal toolbox against Western hegemony”
It basically gives the CCP a legal basis to threaten foreign
companies in China in retaliation for sanctions.
Which is confusing. Since when do they care about doing anything legally?
China’s highest ranking diplomat, Wang Yi , wrote in the People’s Daily that “Many provisions in the
Foreign Relations Law are actually for the purpose of counteracting against foreign sanctions,
the ‘long arm’ jurisdiction and the foreign interference in Chinese domestic affairs”
Wow, that’s surprisingly transparent coming from a CCP diplomat!
He goes on to say “[We should] make full use of the Foreign Relations Law as a legal
tool – through legislative, law enforcement, judicial and other means – to carry out our
fight in response to acts of containment, interference, sanctions and destruction”
I guess it’s nice to see them use a tool to deal with their problems that isn’t a tank.
Over the past three years, China’s been putting out regulations to counter American sanctions,
including the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law in 2021.
What makes this different is how broad and all-encompassing it is.
According to a professor at the School of Law
at City University of Hong Kong , the Foreign Relations Law will serve as “an
umbrella law … that governs China’s conduct of foreign relations in every respect”.
Its main purpose, however, is to consolidate the power of the CCP. More specifically,
the power of Xi and Xi Jinping Thought as the basis for Chinese diplomacy.
Like the counter-espionage law, the Foreign Relations Law pretty much puts into writing
what China’s already doing: putting the Chinese Communist Party first,
and, by extension, Xi, not the nation, state, or government. And definitely not the people.
The law explicitly places control of international relations into the
hands of the CCP, with the Standing Committee of the CCP, chaired by Xi,
as the top dog of foreign relations. The State Council, Central Military Commission,
and Ministry of Foreign Affairs are just there to implement what the CCP wants.
So basically someone said the quiet part out loud,
and instead of covering it up, they put it in writing.
So how does this affect foreign companies?
I’ll tell you after this final commercial break.
Welcome back.
So how does The Foreign Relations Law affect foreign companies?
It says China has the right to take “countermeasures and restrictive measures”
against whatever harms China’s “sovereignty, security, and developmental interests”.
Which I’m guessing means more arbitrary raids, detainments, and data collection.
Or basically anything else they want to do. Give out a bunch of wet willies and purple
nurples? Hey, they had to. It’s for national security. And if you question them… that
sounds like you’re threatening their sovereignty.
Article 6 of the Foreign Relations Law states that all institutions, organizations,
and citizens “have the responsibility and obligation to maintain…dignity [and] honor”.
“Dignity” and “honor”?
It’s already hard enough to figure out what will hurt China’s feelings,
or threaten Chinese “interests,” but now we have to worry about China’s “dignity” and “honor?”
Also, considering China uses rape as a form of torture,
they care about dignity and honor about as much as Vin Diesel cares about volumizing shampoo.
What would it mean in practice? What if a foreign business accidentally calls Taiwan
a country? Or complies with US bans on products made with ethnic slave labor?
To operate in China, foreign businesses now have to make a choice—they can’t have it both ways
anymore. Do you follow the democratic world order? Or the Chinese Communist Party’s world order.
And unfortunately, experience has made me very cynical about the answer to that question.
And this show would not exist without support from viewers like you.
Join what I call the China Uncensored 50 Cent Army by contributing to the show on Patreon. You’ll get
a bunch of cool perks, including the ability to ask me questions I’ll answer on the show.
Today’s question comes from Ian Pendleton “I've been seeing ads for Temu all over the
internet as of late even though I've never gone on the website. Is there any way to
make it so that I don't get those ads at all when I'm browsing? Or at least hide them?”
Ah, that was in response to my recent episode about Temu,
which is owned by a Chinese company, being a total scam. (Corner Box thumb) Unfortunately,
if you wanted to avoid Temu ads, you shouldn’t have watched that episode because the comments
were flooded with people saying that they got ads for Temu in that episode!
And since I’m talking about Temu here, there’s a chance that will happen with this episode too.
That’s because Temu is a weapon of the CCP. Their advertising budget must be insane.
And get this—according to an analysis by Wired,
“the average amount that Temu loses on each order to the US is around $30.”
Temu is losing millions of dollars.
But that’s fine because it's being propped up by the Chinese Company that owns which is being
propped up by the CCP. The Communist Party is using Temu to drive American competitors
out of business. Even more reasons foreign companies should be wary of the China market
because if it still isn't clear at this point—the CCP is at war with the world!
So the best way to never see a Temu ad again is to help bring down the Chinese Communist Party,
by sharing this show with friends and family, so they know what’s really going on in China.
Thanks for your question and your support Ian.
And thank you for watching.
Once again, I’m Chris Chappell. See you next time.