Cowardly Corporate Capitulation To Communist China Shows Necessity Of Economic Nationalism

It was once hoped – perhaps honestly or perhaps as an excuse for shipping jobs overseas – that if the Western world and Western corporations played by China’s rules for a while, the Communist State would end up becoming a free and democratic nation that accepted the rules of global commerce in time.

The idea was that China would become more like the West, and a massive global market of free, democratic nations would be created.

It hasn’t happened.

Instead, the Western world is becoming more and more like China, as Western corporations sell out their own citizens and the values of their own nations in order to pursue profit in China.

While this has been happening for a long time, the trend has rocketed into a newfound prominence in the past week.

First, the NBA panicked and desperately tried to placate China after the Houston Rockets General Manager Tweeted in support of freedom for Hong Kong. The innocuous Tweet led to a boycott of the Houston Rockets in China, the cancelling of game broadcasts, and an appalling display of cowardice, as the NBA’s ‘woke’ players and coaches (who love talking about politics in the US) all of a sudden had nothing to say about China’s human rights abuses. To get a sense of how bad things are, people attending NBA games in America are being kicked out for expressing support for Hong Kong, and journalists who ask about it are being silenced.

Then, Blizzard Entertainment (a company based in the United States) punished a gamer for expressing his support for Hong Kong, while also firing two people who had been hosting the livestreaming event in which that support was expressed.

Finally, Apple removed an app that had been used by Hong Kong protestors to identify where the Communist-China police were waiting for them. Apple had previously approved it, then withdrew it under pressure from the Communist State.

What makes all of this so disturbing is that these are companies headquartered in a free and democratic country, and many of these companies consider themselves to be ‘progressive,’ and ‘woke,’ and in favour of free speech.

But instead of living up to those values, they are allowing their desire for profits in China to be weaponized by the Communist State, as China is now able to impose their censorship and control of information far beyond their borders.

It’s cowardly, it’s disloyal, it’s unacceptable, and it must be stopped.

And the solution is very clear:

Economic Nationalism.

The world is now increasingly divided by a ruthless competition between free, democratic nations, and China’s authoritarian communism.

Any company headquartered in a Western nation that decides to allow China to influence their actions, and imposes China-style restrictions and punishments on Citizens in the West is clearly acting disloyally to their own nation.

As a result, the government must step in and legislate against those disloyal companies.

We need clear restrictions on China being allowed to take ownership of Canadian companies, we must use tariffs and trade barriers to decouple our economy from China over time, and we must seek trade deals with nations that share our values.

Companies that fail to stand up for the values of their nation and sell out to Communist China must be punished. That punishment can come first and foremost from consumers, who have already rightfully demonized and in some cases shamed the pathetic collaborating capitulators into doing the right thing.

And that punishment must also come through clear legislation that restricts the ability of any company to be connected to or controlled by China in the first place.

In short, we need to embrace Economic Nationalism, hold corporations accountable, ensure they work for the good of our nation, and put an end to this disgusting and cowardly surrender to Communist China that risks destroying the freedoms that our nation fought and died to protect.

Spencer Fernando

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