When Xi Jinping, the president of China, makes his state visit to the UK this week, he will bring a message of forgiveness – for Britain’s now forsworn attempts to “interfere with China’s internal affairs” such as human rights and Tibet – and hope.
President Xi will offer David Cameron life-saving investment in the British economy and an increasing share of the emerging Chinese domestic market for Britain’s exports. The Chinese delegation is expected to sign off on a multimillion-pound investment in Hinkley Point nuclear power station, and a number of other infrastructure projects. The images of Xi being honoured by the Queen, when they are broadcast in China, will bring a massive boost to the sale of British goods to the imminent Chinese “consumer-led” economy. In a nutshell, President Xi Jinping is going to rescue Britain.
The Chinese government once offered to rescue me too. It was about 10 years ago, in China, when I ran a media business worth $4m a year in sales. I published print magazines and websites.
All media in China is controlled by the Communist party, via the State Council Information Office. After seven years of political and commercial battles, during which I was obliged to work with various levels of government and the party, an official from the Information Office told me my troubles were over. His precise words were: “Mark, now that you are working with us, you have nothing to fear. Everything will be fine.”
The Information Office proceeded to subvert my brand and disrupt my business. We had a dispute, which ended in the Beijing court of appeal. In the final hearing, a provincial government official I had worked with for many years took the stand and read out a letter he had received. It was signed, and it was from the man who told me I had nothing to fear.
“You are to create a back-dated document so we can secure the rights to the trademark,” it said, and concluded: “It is your duty to help us teach this foreigner a lesson.”
My lawyer was summoned to court to collect the decision, which we had been told was in our favour. He never made it. Stuck in traffic, he took a call on his mobile. “The decision has been cancelled.”
He called the judge. “It is impossible for me to discuss this,” she said, and hung up.
The government official who had told me I had nothing to fear took my business and my trademark, and went on to destroy my career. He made it impossible for me to work in the media in China.
When I tell this story, the standard reaction is: things have changed for the better; that would never happen in China today. And now: “Xi Jinping is going to make reforms that will liberate the Chinese market and economy, so everything will be all right.”
They are incorrect. The commercial environment in China, especially for foreign companies, but also domestic ones, has worsened. Ask a member of any foreign chamber of commerce there. Xi has not implemented reforms. He has clamped down on political dissent, and where he has attempted to solve economic problems, he has been at best cack-handed.
Note the third-person singular. Xi has concentrated personal power in a way no Chinese leader since Mao Zedong has done, which goes expressly against the legacy of Deng Xiaoping, the only truly reforming party leader (and he had little choice). Nor is China “about to become a consumer-led economy”, as observers have been repeating for years. There will be no such thing in China until the party makes reforms to society that will affect its own grip on power, and it cannot do that.
I wonder if, in London this week, Xi will say: “David, now that you are working with us, you have nothing to fear. Everything will be fine.”
That will certainly be the message. David Cameron should be wary of it.
