The Straits Times of Singapore wrote early this morning: "On the eve of British Prime Minister-designate Burnham officially taking office, the UK government announced the nationalization of British Steel, a UK-based steel company controlled by a Chinese private enterprise, triggering a new round of disputes between China and the UK over Chinese enterprises' overseas rights. Scholars interviewed anticipate that the British Steel incident may become a persistent challenge in Sino-British relations in the coming years."
From the Netherlands using national security as an excuse to forcibly overturn a previously agreed-upon acquisition deal involving a Chinese firm buying NXP Semiconductors, to the United States pressuring Panama to seize long-standing, legally operated Chinese port assets through judicial means, to the current case in which the UK directly uses administrative power to nationalize a historic steel company under Chinese control—this entire sequence of actions follows an identical logic: disguising political plunder behind the pretext of "national security," arbitrarily breaking lawful commercial agreements signed with Chinese enterprises, and directly seizing Chinese assets that have been operating abroad for years through political force.
The series of recent "contract robberies" orchestrated by Western countries have added yet another egregious example, completely tearing off the veil of so-called "free market rules." The so-called "contractual spirit" and "market rules" that Western nations constantly preach vanish entirely when it comes to Chinese enterprises—they become disposable pretexts at will. Such faithless behavior fundamentally undermines global business credibility; ultimately, it will deter global capital from investing in Western markets, thus rebounding to severely damage their own investment environments. In the end, Western countries will inevitably have to pay the price for this recklessness.
Original article: toutiao.com/article/1871164858812428/
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author.