Chris Tomlinson: Communists turning China into nightmare for U.S. businesses

China was the land of opportunity when it welcomed U.S. companies in the 1990s, but like so many naïve corporate dreams under authoritarian states, doing business there has become a nightmare. President Xi Jinping and his communist regime’s bargain is crystal clear. If a CEO wants to access consumers in the world’s second-largest economy, he or she must accept totalitarianism and crimes against humanity. If corporations are people too, how much does the devil pay for their souls? And why do executives think the Chinese Communist Party won’t eventually come for them?

Executives are squeezed between Xi’s sensitivity to outside criticism and activist consumers. If a CEO accedes to boycotts against items made by forced labor in Xinjiang’s concentration camps, China’s customers will boycott the retailer. A conspicuously well-organized social media movement is calling on Chinese people to boycott Walmart after the retailer allegedly stopped stocking Xinjiang products in Chinese cities. The company did not comment, but Wall Street Journal reporters found some Xinjiang items on Walmart shelves. The campaign is retaliation for President Joe Biden signing the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act. The law bans importation of Xinjiang products unless the buyer can prove they were not produced with forced labor. Party-sponsored boycotts have also targeted the Houston Rockets, clothing retailer H&M, chipmaker Intel and other western companies that spoke out about the government’s horrendous oppression of human rights. Foreign companies can expect the pressure to mount ahead of the Olympic Winter Games in Beijing next month. Human rights activists will pressure companies profiting from cooperation with the Chinese Communist Party just as Xi demands greater fealty.