The US forced the closure of China’s consulate in Houston. It claimed they were spying. In retaliation China kicked our America’s consulate in Chengdu. Because… well… because it’s reciprocal.
It might have helped if China had been a bit more reciprocal after the US chaperoned them into the World Trade Organisation in 2001. China got free access to western markets, most importantly the United States. And boy did it do well! In return? Pretty much nothing. They were supposed to. According to the WTO. But they simply didn’t.
Here’s an incomplete list of companies that China did not allow access to China’s market: Google, Facebook, YouTube, Blogger, Twitter…sure, were better off without lots of these. But that’s not what happened. China simply copied them and gave the home grown version exclusive access to China’s market. Whole sectors, like finance, insurance, telecoms, were off limits. In China, not to China in the west.
They forced foreign companies to transfer technology if they wanted access. This was specifically illegal under WTO rules they had signed up to. And I saw this, experienced this, myself via Australian companies.
Did they need to do this? Of course not. They just did. Because they could. And the west did nothing in return.
Until now. It’s too bad the fight back had to be by a man as unsuited to the fight as Donald Trump. But no president before had done anything other than cavil.
And so back to the reciprocity. If China had been more reciprocal four decades ago, maybe we’d not be reciprocating at each other now.
It might have helped if China had been a bit more reciprocal after the US chaperoned them into the World Trade Organisation in 2001. China got free access to western markets, most importantly the United States. And boy did it do well! In return? Pretty much nothing. They were supposed to. According to the WTO. But they simply didn’t.
Here’s an incomplete list of companies that China did not allow access to China’s market: Google, Facebook, YouTube, Blogger, Twitter…sure, were better off without lots of these. But that’s not what happened. China simply copied them and gave the home grown version exclusive access to China’s market. Whole sectors, like finance, insurance, telecoms, were off limits. In China, not to China in the west.
They forced foreign companies to transfer technology if they wanted access. This was specifically illegal under WTO rules they had signed up to. And I saw this, experienced this, myself via Australian companies.
Did they need to do this? Of course not. They just did. Because they could. And the west did nothing in return.
Until now. It’s too bad the fight back had to be by a man as unsuited to the fight as Donald Trump. But no president before had done anything other than cavil.
And so back to the reciprocity. If China had been more reciprocal four decades ago, maybe we’d not be reciprocating at each other now.
