Everything Xi Jinping is doing today is eroding trust among Chinese and foreign entrepreneurs about what the rules of business are now inside China
A Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company plant in Tainan, Taiwan, on Sept. 18, 2020. Image: An Rong Xu/The New York Times
Ever since Deng Xiaoping opened China to the world in the late 1970s, many in the West wanted to see the country succeed, because we thought China — despite its brutal authoritarian political structure — was on a path to a more open economy and society. Alas, President Xi Jinping has reversed steps in that direction in ways that could pose a real danger to China’s future development and a real danger to the rest of the world.Everything Xi is doing today is eroding trust among Chinese and foreign entrepreneurs about what the rules of business are now inside China, while at the same time eroding trust abroad that China — having swallowed Hong Kong — won’t soon move on Taiwan, which could trigger a direct conflict with the U.S.©2019 New York Times News Service