The United States is a very young country. Our sense of history is compressed. Our history is a blip on the radar of many other nations’ and peoples’ histories. So our perspective on things is often quite different.
China has been China for thousands of years. Basically the same people living in the same place for eons. With a very different history – which imbues them with a very different perspective.
We in the US are VERY fortunate. The reason we remember so desperately the Great Depression – is because it was such an anomaly for us. Ten years of hard times scarred the psyche of generations of Americans.
China’s people have spent MANY HUNDREDS of years in abject poverty. Their recent success is their first since the Middle Ages – and much of China remains untouched by it.
Communist Mao’s great famine killed tens of millions of people – and it ended in the early 1960s. In living memory of many living Chinese.
Oh: And China has more than 1.4 billion people.
All of which adds up to a China that is concerned first and foremost with feeding its people. Everything they do – they view through the prism of “How does this help provide for the Chinese people.”
“To the ruler, the people are heaven; to the people, food is heaven.”
China First, if you will. Which means China prioritizing the Chinese people.
It is with all of the above in mind that we must regard this new news….
China Cracks Down on Big Tech Companies:
“China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology announced a six-month campaign on Monday to regulate internet companies, particularly practices that ‘disrupt market order, damage consumer rights, or threaten data security.’ That followed repeated fines against tech giants including Alibaba, Baidu, and Tencent for violating antitrust laws, and a new plan to restrict overseas listings by Chinese companies.
“The crackdown has extended to successes once viewed as home-grown champions. Ride-hail company Didi Chuxing beat out Uber in China and made inroads in Latin America and Africa. On June 30, the company raised $4.4 billion in an IPO on the New York Stock Exchange-the largest for a Chinese company since Alibaba in 2014….
“The reasons for the seemingly sudden crackdown are unclear, but it comes amid moves by president Xi Jinping to assert more authority over every aspect of life. Observers say the government, empowered by a raft of new legislation, wants to regain control of tech companies that have become too big, too powerful, and all too willing to abuse their market share.”
Their Big Tech companies are like our Big Tech companies – “too big, too powerful, and all too willing to abuse their market share.”
Big Tech abusing their market share – means killing competitors and potential competitors. Which means killing jobs and potential jobs. Which means less Chinese people working – which means less Chinese people eating. Which is ancient China’s ancient chief concern.
China also views Big Tech’s massive money consolidation – as unproductive for the broader economy…and thereby the people.
China’s Alibaba is worth $532 billion. Its founder Jack Ma is personally worth $44.41 billion. The Chinese view that much money in one place – is damaging all the other places.
And our Big Tech companies – are WAY bigger than theirs.
Apple: $2.41 trillion
Microsoft: $2.15 trillion
Alphabet (Google): $1.83 trillion
Amazon: $1.68 trillion
Facebook: $1.02 trillion
And there’s something about Big Tech China understands – but most of US do not. Which I have actually previously addressed….
Google’s Biggest US Employee Tally Is Probably Its Lawyers:
“One of the VERY many downsides of Big Tech taking over this country? The very few employees they hire.
“Obviously retail overlord Amazon is an exception. They have to hire some US employees to delver all the Communist Chinese products they sell.
“But in conjunction with government officials, their Big Tech cronyism and their China Virus lockdowns – Amazon is well on the way to murdering every US retailer except them.
“But most Big Tech companies – like Google, Facebook and Twitter – are mostly a bunch of computer servers. With a few hyper-compensated hyper-Leftist partisan executives. And some computer programmers to keep the servers up and running – and getting ever better at consuming our minds and existences.
“And Big Tech doesn’t even want to hire US citizens for those few programming gigs. So they instead hire lawyers to get even more Big Government cronyism out of the government officials they own….
“And for what are Big Tech lawyer lobbyists lobbying? Even at the height of US citizen unemployment because of the Big Tech-enriching government lockdowns?
“Not hiring US citizens….
“Big Tech is also awful about Intellectual Property (IP) and its protection…
“Lots and lots of Big Tech lawyers hired. To defend Big Tech’s mass heists from actually productive people.”
So most of Big Tech’s employees are people making Big Tech bigger – by doing damaging things to everything and everyone else.
China understands this isn’t good for its economy. Or its people.
We need to figure out it isn’t good for ours. And right quick.
Our people like to eat too.