China is playing the “discrimination” card. When the United States tries to protect itself from China’s big tech, usually for reasons of data security, China replies that America is “discriminating” against the country, a charge that can be interpreted as racism, a violation of World Trade Organization (WTO) rules, or both. But China’s claim is hypocritical, given its genocide against the Uyghurs, freedom of speech restrictions on American big tech, and a slew of trade barriers that prohibit market access by foreign firms. For America’s sake, and for the sake of democracies globally, the United States should be more discriminating with respect to China, not less. It is our failure to use trade leverage against China in the past that produced the China threat of today. More failures to discriminate only make the future threat more dire.
The headquarters of the World Trade Organization (WTO) is seen in Geneva, Switzerland, on Dec. 11, 2019. Robert Hradil/Getty Images
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Commentary
Anders Corr
Author
Anders Corr has a bachelor's/master's in political science from Yale University (2001) and a doctorate in government from Harvard University (2008). He is a principal at Corr Analytics Inc. and publisher of the Journal of Political Risk, and has conducted extensive research in North America, Europe, and Asia. His latest books are “The Concentration of Power: Institutionalization, Hierarchy, and Hegemony” (2021) and “Great Powers, Grand Strategies: the New Game in the South China Sea" (2018).
