Are China's Tantrums Signs of Strength or Weakness?
The Hong Kong protests have entered a fifth month, a longevity that might have been hard to predict at the outset. The protests were sparked in reaction to an extradition bill that protesters feared would mean turning over dissidents to mainland China, but have turned into a broad movement over fears that liberties under the “one country, two systems” promised when the United Kingdom turned over its colony to China would be trampled.
Inevitably, this brought the Chinese government at into conflict with Western companies that do business with China. Recently, the Chinese government has started flexing its muscles, going so far as to pressure Western companies to censor their own employees. Many companies, even big ones, are already caving, including Apple, the NBA, and the gaming company Blizzard Entertainment.
People from across the American political spectrum—you don’t often see Ted Cruz and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez sign a joint statement—are rightfully asking why Western companies have been so quick to crumble, betraying the core American value of free speech.
But a larger, and more consequential, question remains: Why is the Chinese government throwing a fit over things that are otherwise so minor?
There is more than one possible answer. And given China’s importance in the world—as a major economic power; as the country with the most advanced practice of surveillance authoritarianism, which it is now exporting to other countries; and
