> people doing business have been much more heavily affected, so far in this trade war, by arbitrary actions of the US President than of the Chinese government.
I don't really know how that's related at all to my original post, but sure the trade war has massively affected the worldwide economy, and business leaders are well aware (watch the stock market jump and dive every time big T reaches for his phone)
My original post is just adding that business leaders need to also be aware that China is more than willing to put companies between a rock and a hard place - stick with your morals and risk your China business, or give up your values and risk a PR disaster (see Blizzard). Business leaders need to price in this risk, much as they already price in the risk of tariffs, sanctions, etc. If US customers start to care about HK or Taiwan or Tibet or Xinjiang, that's an immediate and new risk to companies that feel pressured to censor themselves
To put it another way - when gay marriage became popular in the states, companies began to proudly advertise rainbow branded products. What happens if support for HK protests reaches that level of popularity? Companies with mainland presence get dabbed on
Your original comment set up a dichotomy between China and the US: businesses have to be wary of arbitrary Chinese government actions, but can count on predictable, fair treatment in the US.
That dichotomy is not borne out by the facts. So far in this trade war, capricious actions by the US government have done far more damage to businesses than such actions by the Chinese government. China has yet to pull anything of the magnitude of the Huawei ban. That's not to say they definitely won't in the future, but so far, they've held back, so as not to scare off foreign businesses.
I don't really know how that's related at all to my original post, but sure the trade war has massively affected the worldwide economy, and business leaders are well aware (watch the stock market jump and dive every time big T reaches for his phone)
My original post is just adding that business leaders need to also be aware that China is more than willing to put companies between a rock and a hard place - stick with your morals and risk your China business, or give up your values and risk a PR disaster (see Blizzard). Business leaders need to price in this risk, much as they already price in the risk of tariffs, sanctions, etc. If US customers start to care about HK or Taiwan or Tibet or Xinjiang, that's an immediate and new risk to companies that feel pressured to censor themselves
To put it another way - when gay marriage became popular in the states, companies began to proudly advertise rainbow branded products. What happens if support for HK protests reaches that level of popularity? Companies with mainland presence get dabbed on