Australian Polity, Volume 9 Number 3 - Digital Version

CHINA
GOLD MEDAL
TOTALITARIANS
/ KEVIN ANDREWS
It may seem rather petty, but the Olympic medal count
is indicative of the obsessive preoccupations of the
Chinese Communist Regime. Throughout the recent
Olympics, Chinese media published the medal count
regularly. But when the United States edged China off
the top rung, the tables disappeared, only to be replaced
a few days later on State-controlled social media by a
new table that included Hong Kong and Taiwan in China’s
column, even though these two states are separately
represented at the Games. Not content with stealing
intellectual property from other nations, China now seeks
to claim the medals won by other countries.
No aspect of life is free of the totalitarian command in
China, as the financial and business world has learnt
recently. A combination of events has highlighted the
significant hazards of both investing in China and doing
business there.
The Chair of the US Securities and Exchange Commission,
Gary Gensler, recently warned about the risks of investing
in Chinese companies, observing that many American
investors don’t know enough about some Chinese
companies that are listed on US stock exchanges.
The Commission has already prevented public offerings
by Chinese companies until they boost disclosures.
Tellingly, many investors have failed to understand that
they have been buying shares in shell companies instead
of the actual Chinese businesses.
“That means disclosing the political and regulatory risk
that the government of China could, as they’ve done a
number of times recently, significantly change the rules in
the middle of the game,” Gensler said. “If the auditors of
Chinese operating companies don’t open up their books
and records in the next three years, the companies . . .
won’t be able to be listed here in the US.”
The related risk arises from China’s new five-year plan
for regulating the economy. The new rules, which tighten
the control of the communist regime over the domestic
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