China’s SOEs play fair in global competition
By Zhong Sheng
China’s state-owned enterprises
(SOEs) are independent market entities that engage in autonomous operations, and
make profits and assume losses independently.
Bearing risks on their own,
practicing self-discipline and pursuing self-development, they compete with
other enterprises of different ownerships on a level playing field.
However, they have long been
regarded as a thorn in the side of some Americans who stubbornly believe that “those
who are not with us must be against us”. Fabricating stories about Chinese SOEs
and maliciously defaming them, these Americans spare no effort to
stigmatize and demonize these Chinese companies.
Since China’s accession to the
WTO, the
country has been actively reforming its policies to ensure compliance and fully
performing the obligations under the WTO Agreement on Subsidies and
Countervailing Measures. Not only has China completely
cancelled prohibited subsidies, but also strictly abided by the WTO
rules on subsidy transparency.
Over a thousand relevant
notifications have been submitted by the country to the WTO.
In July 2018, China submitted to
the WTO notifications of the central and sub-national subsidy policies between
2015 and 2016 which for the first time covered all of provincial-level
administrative regions.
Meanwhile, making active and
effective efforts to straighten out and standardize industrial
subsidies, relevant Chinese departments have created a market environment where
companies of all ownerships and sizes are treated as equals and compete on a
level playing field.
China, keeping its commitment
with concrete actions, has been highly acclaimed by the international community.
Pascal Lamy, former Director-General of the WTO, said that “China has done
really well in terms of implementing its long list of commitments” and that the
U.S. is wrong when it targets China as the “big cheater”.
It’s hardly possible to
disassociate the U.S. speculation of the so-called huge Chinese SOE subsidies
from the sour grapes and mental malfunction of some U.S. officials.
On the latest Fortune Global 500
list, Chinese companies for the first time outnumbered those of the U.S., and
quite a lot of the listed were SOEs.
The excellent performance of the
Chinese companies in the global market wakened the devil in the hearts of some
U.S. officials who therefore hope to expel their Chinese competitors from the market.
The WTO rules neither
differentiate between private companies and SOEs nor discriminate against SOEs.
China’s SOEs are a significant
driving force for the country’s economic development, and an important
contributor to the development of global economy.
Since the founding of the
People’s Republic of China, these enterprises have played an irreplaceable role
in the country’s endeavor to establish an independent and
relatively complete industrial system as the country tried to shake
off poverty and backwardness.
In recent years, Chinese SOEs,
as major players in the process of economic globalization, have conformed
to the laws of market, improved governance structure, and carried out
multinational operation,
realizing win-win development with their global partners.
However, through the “colored
spectacles” of some Americans, regular activities of the market entities are natively
threatening, and business deals based on equality and free will are
unfair because of “government subsidies”.
Instead of creating troubles out
of nothing and arrogantly finding faults of others, these Americans should take
a good look at themselves.
According to statistics from Good
Jobs First, a U.S. watchdog on corporate subsidies, since the 1980s, U.S.
governments at different levels have given $178.1 billion in subsidies to
domestic enterprises through 80,337 projects. In particular, the Boeing Company
alone has received $14.5 billion of allocated subsidies from the federal and
state/local governments since 2000.
The subsidy competition among
different states has long become an open secret. Such competition between Kansas
and Missouri even evolved into a “war” in which the two states race against
each other regarding the corporate welfare they offer.
On March 28, 2019, the WTO’s Appellate
Body issued its report on U.S. compliance in the Boeing dispute,
ruling that Washington State failed to comply with a WTO ruling in 2012, and
continued providing Boeing annually with an illegal subsidized tax break worth
around $100 million.
Later on July 16, the WTO
announced in its Appellate Body report that the U.S. had not fully complied
with an WTO ruling in 2014, and pointed out that 11 of U.S.
countervailing proceedings concerning certain products from China, including
the OCTG and solar panels, were inconsistent with WTO laws.
As an adage in the western world goes,
facts can always catch up with lies, even if they spread as fast as galloping
horses. Some Americans had better understand it as early as
possible.
(Zhong Sheng is a pen name often
used by People's Daily to express its views on foreign policy.)
China’s SOEs play fair in global competition
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