The Real Consequences of Letting China Lead Globalisation

The news has been recently filled with much material about China and how companies are bowing down to every request made by its government. The power China has over many of the biggest companies in the world cannot be brushed over. As China grows to be the new “factory of the world” so does their power in influencing companies who base the manufacture of their goods there.

Globalisation

Undeniably globalisation has greatly transformed our world, for the better and for the worst. On one hand, we can now buy goods at a cheaper price than ever, but the side effects of this consumer heaven have been unprecedented.

Due to the astronomically low production costs available in China, many of the cheap goods we benefit from are being produced in China. This has unintentionally given China the power to influence whoever they want if they use Chinese factories.

The puppet and the master

Want the Taiwan flag removed as an emoji from the Apple keyboard in Hong Kong and Macau? Sure, just pressure Apple. If they deny a double-sided sword would strike down. One side is the removal of one of their biggest manufacturing partners and the other is the restriction from the world’s biggest consumer market.

This reliance has made such companies puppets to the Chinese government. When we see Xi Jinping being ranked as the most powerful man on earth we can now understand why. Without China’s economic output the world would lack 18% of its total economic output, an astronomical amount in a world so reliant on globalisation.

Another example of this reach comes from one of the most central industries of the US. The National Basketball League who encountered a firestorm recently when Daryl Morey, general manager of the Houston Rockets, tweeted his support for Hong Kong’s protests. As Chinese companies pulled sponsorships and Tencent Sports suspended its broadcasts of Rockets games, the league quickly issued an apology to China.

The shareholders must be made happy

Such power has been aggregated due to every company’s main concern. Money! Rather than support the struggle against a totalitarian regime, services that are meant to be shown in the “Land of the Free” bend their knee to the power of Xi Jinping in favour of keeping their profit margins high and their shareholders content.

The hunt for profit has put all of us under the iron fist of a foreign government. All of us are affected by the decisions made by these large corporations. The once bastion of freedom, the US, has been put at the mercy of a regime which stands for the opposite of what the US should stand for. What happened to spreading freedom? Or is that only viable when it profits the government?

The power of the people

Noone seems to be doing anything against this threat, the only real outlier of those who stood up to China’s threats is the creators of Southpark through their ironic “apology” featured on their Twitter. I think that many of us should take a stand like the creators of Southpark did. As consumers, we have what companies value most. Money.

Companies such as Blizzard who confiscated the winnings of a Hearthstone player after his comments on the protests happening in Hong Kong have gotten a large backlash of players who in protest of these actions have deleted their accounts and stopped using their services.

The power of this protest was quickly shown by Blizard recently returning the winnings of this player. A statement was later released which clarified that this whole decision was not influenced by China in any way which seems really doubtfull considering China holds both Blizzards biggest market and holds the largest proportion of shares in the company.

I think that we as the consumer have to power to show these companies that siding with such a regime for profit is the wrong move. Boycotting the products of those who side with China should be something that we as western consumers should feel obligated to do.

Due to Europe and North America being some of the highest consumer regions in the world it means that we also have the power to influence these companies, although the power is much more spread unlike in China.

Together we can work towards a future where we are not afraid of the potential threat of a totalitarian regime influencing our country. Fight back against those who defend the evil side of history and show them that its wrong to side with such a despicable regime.

For any enquiries or comments make sure to contact me at [email protected]