Commentary
On July 11, shortly after the United States added 23 Chinese entities to an economic blacklist, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) responded with an inflammatory statement. The Party, we’re told, “resolutely opposes” the “unreasonable suppression” of Chinese companies. The irony of the CCP, very much the masters of “unreasonable suppression,” releasing such a statement is as striking as it is amusing. The CCP, however, is not amused. In fact, the Party is downright furious. The blacklisting, which was a “serious breach of international economic and trade rules,” has infuriated leaders in Beijing, who have vowed to take “necessary measures to safeguard” Chinese “interests.” A few weeks before the blacklisting, during a celebration of the 100th anniversary of the CCP’s founding, Xi Jinping had some strong words for any foreign enemies looking “to bully, oppress or enslave” its citizens. An enemy of China, he warned, can expect “broken heads and bloodshed.”
