
A Koch Executive’s Harassment in China Adds to Fears Among Visitors - bubmiw
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/11/business/american-businesses-china.html
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bobjordan
American living in China, here for 10 years now. Even before the current
tensions, as an American visiting China, you'd be likely to feel like you've
stepped into another planet on entering. China is just so utterly different,
and if you are non-Asian, you attract a lot of Chinese eyeballs from everyone
from young children to Grandpa's, as they are just generally curious about
foreigners. Everyone openly refers to you as "foreigner", like "hey look at
that foreigner over there". On top of that, they are security conscious here
in China. In 10-years in China, I've never found myself in a place where I've
felt unsafe. Frankly, having personally been in serious danger in America a
few times and further, my little brother got robbed, shot and killed and died
in the middle of a street. I can't say the security here in China is a bad
thing. The society in China prefers to be secure and have cameras everywhere,
and it seems to be working for them.

So, I think those factors I mentioned above can naturally magnify incidents
which are probably just going to happen to a foreigner here in China
regardless, especially if the foreigner is already a bit concerned about anti-
American sentiment. As far as the anti-American sentiment. I can remember it
happening a few times and this is probably the worst it's been for Americans.
But, I can remember times where anti-sentiment for Japanese appeared much
worse. Locally to where I live, some Chinese nationals vandalized a few
Japanese cars and stores. I don't feel like it's come close to getting that
bad for Americans, yet. And largely, I feel like the Anti-American sentiment
from Huawei and trade tension stuff hit a spike a few months ago, and people
have pretty much moved on now.

~~~
chantelles
I lived in Taipei for a while - I am a white blonde woman - and everywhere I
went kids yelled HEY WHITE LADY. It was, as you describe out of shock as there
were few other white women there. I saw none in my time there. I have never
felt so safe as I did there, and, because I am a woman, having people stare or
comment was nothing new. What was new was that most of the attention was
positive and coming from women and children who wanted to come and look at me
up close. It was very instructive for me, especially upon return to Toronto.
The white men I know who have traveled to Asia all complained/were shocked by
the attention because they are not used to it. In this context, alongside the
current trade/media-war going both ways, I expect more and more stories like
this to counteract the stories of Chinese folks in America being treated
differently, tho I would argue they are nothing the same.

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reaperducer
_Two plainclothes officers asked him to go with them to answer questions. They
asked him about his diplomatic status and whether he had diplomatic immunity,
the people said. They demanded to see his passport, which he refused to show._

What is the best way to deal with something like this? Not that I'm going back
to China any time soon. Just from a curiosity standpoint.

~~~
seanmcdirmid
comply? It isn’t weird to have to show identity to authorities in any country;
having to provide a passport on demand is a given when traveling in China.

Strange that this guy attracted black Audi cop interest, I’ve only ever seen
them when they were hauling away a North Korea student from a Haidian
Starbucks.

~~~
NotSammyHagar
What is the significance of an expensive car cop? Does it means they are from
some top paid government agency?

~~~
seanmcdirmid
A Black Audi has symbolism in China, it means mid grade official at least
(Audi beijg in China much longer than anyone else). Normal police don’t have
access to that of course, if you see police in a black Audi wearing suits and
sunglasses, they are very elite and are often involved in political crimes (Eg
Party enforcement).

As an example, normal police in Beijing walk on egg shells since many people
have lots of connections to bare. So a bunch of rich kids smoking weed isn’t
something they will go near, so those are busted by the Black Audi people (who
have strong enough connections to resist whatever).

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peterkelly
Like how the CFO of Huawei has been detained in Canada since December of last
year?

[https://edition.cnn.com/2018/12/05/tech/huawei-cfo-
arrested-...](https://edition.cnn.com/2018/12/05/tech/huawei-cfo-arrested-
canada/index.html)

~~~
_iyig
She was credibly accused of a crime. The Koch executive wasn’t formally
accused of anything, according to the article, not that such formalities
matter in a system such as China’s.

~~~
freeflight
> She was credibly accused of a crime.

The "crime" of breaking sanctions against Iran, which happened after the US
left JCPOA to reinstate said sanctions against Iran.

Which was a very convenient way to manufacture the "formalities" to arrest the
Huawei CFO.

~~~
ABCLAW
Sorry, this is bullshit. Huawei structured the Iran deal to obfuscate that
they were providing the equipment in question.

Not only did they know they weren't allowed to sell telecom equipment to Iran,
they intentionally tried to do so while hiding it.

Don't pretend this was a secret post facto play by the US to strike at China.
It wasn't.

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sunstone
This is very short sighted behaviour on the part of China. Clearly world
business will avoid the country if they feel their personal security is at
risk due to political interference in the judicial system. International
supply chains will now seek to avoid China if at all possible.

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contingencies
Chances are this is only part of the story.

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justasitsounds
I'm no fan of authoritarian regimes, but given Koch Industries history of
spreading FUD for profit I am reluctant to take this at face value.

