Much of the routine trade and investment between China and America is entirely appropriate and in America’s interest. But inserting the Chinese Communist Party into America’s pay-to-play system and its economic development strategy isn’t just crossing a line. It’s a leap into an abyss of stupidity.
Corruption in Asia consists largely of rent-seeking by public officials from police officers to judges to government officials. When I asked a lawyer in Country X about the legal profession there, he shared that most problems can be solved short of hiring a lawyer. However, if a JUDGE needs to be bribed, that’s when you hire a lawyer. The larger the number of government hurdles that must be jumped, the greater the number of opportunities for rent-seeking. While a young lawyer, I once represented a business opening a branch in Chicago and thought I could handle the property tax angles… Read more »