Comment by kube-system
12 days ago
> There aren't ties to the Chinese military, are there?
From a practical perspective, it could be at any time. China hasn't embraced the free market the same way the west does, and doesn't give private companies the same degree of autonomy you're used to seeing elsewhere. Broadly speaking, if the Chinese government needs a company within their jurisdiction to cooperate with them, they can enforce cooperation.
As an example, even with publicly held companies, the Chinese government will take out "special management shares" that give the government positions on the board with unique power to direct management within a company and direct management decisions. It's not like the West where companies have theit own management that might disagree with the government and battle in court. In China, the government can simply become the management of a company.
That would be an after the fact justification, which could be used to justify banning any company that operates in China.
Not every company, just the ones with military relevance. But for the purposes of a national security discussion, the situation that is being planned for is not the current-state peacetime -- it is the after the fact contingency.