Many experts argue that China will become democratic as it adopts free-market policies. This transformation could still happen, but China has been gradually opening its economy for thirty years without significant political change. If anything, Xi Jinping is consolidating power and appears to have balanced aspects of an open economy with state control.
Instead of transforming China, businesses are being transformed by China as their executives submit to Chinese demands. Whitewashing the protests in Hong Kong or pretending that Taiwan is part of China on a map seem minor, but these actions show an alarming tendency to appease China’s authoritarian demands. Xi Jinping’s slow and secretive response to the coronavirus shows how devastating Chinese government malice and incompetence can be to the United States and the rest of the world.
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