Front Line Dispatch from China’s Economic War Against the U.S.

[Geee]

American Greatness

Here’s the latest dispatch from the front: Ant Technology Group (Ant Group), formerly known as Ant Financial Services Group, is a subsidiary of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding, the e-commerce giant that made Jack Ma one of the world’s richest men. 

Ant provides financial technology (fintech) products and services. It’s expected soon to issue an initial public offering in Hong Kong and Shanghai to raise $30 billion—the largest IPO in history.

It’s important to reiterate the risks involved with investing in any CCP-controlled or affiliated company—which means any Chinese company. Even “private” Chinese companies are beholden to the Chinese government according to its National Intelligence Law and security laws and regulations.

When President Trump barred the pension funds of civilian and military employees of the federal government from investing in index funds that include Chinese companies, National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow and National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien explained: 

The financial impact of this risk is significant: scandals involving Chinese companies in recent years have cost investors billions of dollars. In addition, the Chinese Government currently prevents companies with Chinese operations listed on U.S. exchanges from complying with applicable U.S. securities law, leaving investors without the benefit of important protections.

The Obama-Biden Administration struck the deal that exempts Chinese companies from U.S. securities laws. 

[Valin]

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These 10 Things Could Help Subdue Power-Hungry China

It stirred a hornet’s nest of controversy last month when China, in its latest example of weaponizing trade, issued a set of fourteen demands required for Australia to mend its relationship with its largest trading partner. There is both an intended ironic historical statement behind it and a troubling canary-in-the-coalmine signal that it conveys.

 

Such economic coercion, like a 169 percent tariff on Australian wine, are now familiar yet outrageous responses. So, too, is targeting the National Basketball Association, cutting off rare earth minerals to Japan, or boycotting Philippines bananas—any behavior that offends the prickly sensibilities of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) results in vindictive retribution. It may be tempting to write it off as the antics of an immature great-power country.

 

But the history behind China’s gambit with Australia is ominous. A century ago, Imperial Japan, building its Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere issued the now infamous Twenty-One Demands. They ranged from diktats for the Chinese economy to inserting Japan into its governance—in short, to make China a protectorate. We know how that story turned out.

The point is that China’s fourteen demands are a very conscious reprise, suggesting a sort of intended neo-tributary status for Australia. China’s demands range from rejecting criticism of its actions regarding Taiwan, rejecting Canberra’s call for an international investigation on the origins of the coronavirus and its treatment of Uighurs. Additionally, China wants think-tanks to cease writing reports that question China’s Belt and Road Initiative. Yes, this is more excessive than much of China’s other economic coercion but the pattern is unmistakable even if the difference is a matter of degree.

[Geee]

'Unprecedented' database leak exposes Chinese Communist Party members 'embedded' in western companies and governments: report

A massive database of nearly 2 million registered Chinese Communist Party members has been leaked, providing the rest of the world with an "unprecedented view" into the structure of how China could infiltrate western businesses and companies, including ones in the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom.