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Guo Shuqing is China’s top banking regulator credited with leading the battle that has businessman Jack Ma in check. Guo has denied that the Chinese regime has been empowered by practices that infringe on U.S. intellectual property and has instead created a narrative in defense of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to challenge the Joe Biden Administration.
Despite evidence that the CCP has engaged in espionage and technology theft practices, Guo asserts that the U.S. accusation against China on technology theft is “completely unfounded by the fact that the West has used intellectual property rights protection to protect its trade.”
Since the campaign, President Biden has stated that he will work on a new approach to trade relations with China, and Guo Shuqing is ready to challenge him along the way.
“A trade war with China is bound to cause shocks and depressions in the international financial market, harming the interests of American businesses.”
Guo Shuqing
The CCP’s threats to the West are due to the Asian giant’s power in recent years in economic matters. It should be recalled that China’s share of the world economy has increased from 3.6% in 2000 to 17.8% in 2020, according to the BBC.
In addition to China’s economic advantage by preventing the world from reacting in time to Covid-19, it has allowed it to harden its rhetoric against democratic countries and increase diplomatic pressure to reach agreements with Biden.
Chinese-style free market
Guo Shuqing defends China’s growth in recent decades by accusing the United States and the West “of taking a high profit from Chinese industry.” As foreign investors saw China as a low-cost industrial fortress, Chinese politicians in turn “forged strategies to strengthen the Asian giant”.
For example, the press notes that China implements strategies of “forced and distorted technology transfers such as cyber attacks on foreign companies.”
Guo defended that China is the most industrialized country in the world, and has enough technology and economic muscle to overcome the United States despite blockades and sanctions.
Today, Xi Jinping’s government claims a free market just as the West proclaimed it when it sold Chinese products at higher prices, Guo said in a speech in 2019.
However, China is not a free economy because of its legal system. The press reports that foreign companies must partner with local companies that are accountable to the regime and must conform to laws that prevent free information or refrain from harming CCP interests.
Guo’s strategy is to challenge the United States, taking into account China’s new strengths. According to the Chinese press, the trade agreement with the European Union and New Zealand shows China’s diplomatic achievements based on the robust economy achieved with government’s support.
The European Union, and much of the business sector have been complicit in China committing crimes against humanity or genocide as sanctioned by the Trump administration in the United States.
Chinese companies are solid and enjoy the financial backing of the Chinese Bank led by Guo and the laws that benefit Chinese investors and their allies abroad.
Business and benefit among peers
While stealing American intellectual property, China claims equal intellectual property rights and demands access to technological developments just as it does in the U.S. and other Western countries.
The Trump Administration imposed sanctions on Chinese products to counter China’s dishonest trade practices, because of compelling evidence of CCP-driven forced labor.
However, sanctions on Chinese giants involved in trade crimes and human rights violations will be negotiated by China once Biden executes his so-called “patient strategy” vis-à-vis the CCP.
On the other hand, Guo Shuqing emphasizes that the “excessive profit of the West” at the expense of Chinese industry has been one of the main factors in creating his strategy to position the Chinese economy at the same level as the American economy.
Guo’s bid for equal treatment is part of the CCP’s propaganda inside the country and together with its allies in the Belt and Road initiative, where China shows itself as a stable country while promoting dictatorial regimes and sending messages against democracy.
More restrictions are a victory for the CCP and Guo Shuqing
Guo Shuqing supports extreme regulation that, like the rules for foreign investors, empowers the Chinese Communist Party and ensures profits for Beijing.
In early February 2021, the media reported that Jack Ma’s Ant Group had reached an agreement with Chinese financial regulators headed by Guo Shuqing.
“Xi and Guo share a belief that the weaknesses of the market economy can be addressed by strict regulation,” according to the Financial Times.
Guo is a skeptic of the use of new technologies in banking. One of his fears is that entrepreneurs can have unlimited power by having personal information on millions of customers, gaining competitive advantages over the traditional system.
However, he is in favor of this information being in the hands of the CCP, since, as in the case of Ant Group and in line with Jack Ma’s own proposal, one solution is to hand over part of the conglomerate to the regime.
In this way, not only do regulators like Guo ensure that technology groups follow their rules, according to the press, but it also makes the CCP share in the “profits generated by the millions of transactions carried out, including those made on foreign stock exchanges.”
Camilo Bello is a consultant focused on Asia Pacific studies and has experience in strategic management. He has studied law in Colombia and is currently pursuing studies in language and history at National Taiwan Normal University. He has collaborated with Students for Freedom in Hong Kong and Taiwan // Camilo es consultor enfocado en estudios de Asia Pacífico y experiencia en gestión estratégica. Cuenta con estudios en Derecho en Colombia y actualmente se encuentra realizando estudios en lenguaje e historia en National Taiwan Normal University. Colaborador de Estudiantes por la Libertad en Hong Kong y Taiwán