Beijing, from Tiananmen to global business takeovers

Recall that in the 1980s and the heyday of Japanese companies buying the best pieces on America's business Monopoly Board, there was that reaction.

For example a state-run PRC firm was in a bloody multi-billion dollar bidding war for a major Australian mining company; Beijing has just backed out partially due to political blowback.

And what of the U.S. Congressional reaction? Shall there be hearings, or even a hint of oversight?

“We have to look at this cynically,” said Duncan Hunter, a Republican Congressman, representing the San Diego area. He told the Wall Street Journal. “Any money that is going to China or to Chinese companies is contributing in some way to China's military buildup.”

Given that U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was coincidentally in Beijing on a mission to reassure the Chinese that the US$767 billion in American debt which they are holding is really quite safe, (students at Peking University saw his speech as a great stand-up comic line), perhaps some Chinese businessmen are willing to make an investment in what they may view as a “privatization” sale of a faltering state-firm, Government Motors.

Twenty years ago the People's Republic of China was already ridding itself of the worst and most constricting elements of the old Maoist system. Socio-economic changes were allowing a move from a socialist economy to a gradually opening business environment. China has prospered not because of her government, but because the government had enough sense to finally step aside, and allow the hard working and entrepreneurial spirit of the Chinese people to blossom forth in private business. Today the PRC exhibits a combination of crony capitalism, a vibrant private sector, and tarnished state run “rice bowl” heavy polluting industries.

Modern mainland China evokes the corporate state. Coming to think of it, so does the United States.

John J. Metzler is a United Nations correspondent covering diplomatic and defense issues.

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