The intelligence gains that any government might expect to snatch from using its internationally successful companies as spying platforms are small potatoes next to the long-run benefits that accrue from having its companies competing and thriving and trusted in global markets.
Even the China of Xi Jinping must be able to figure this out. China is making a wrong turn toward totalitarianism under its new maximum leader, but the U.S. and the West should have confidence in freedom to prevail in the long run. In particular, we should have more confidence that China’s plans for homegrown, government-dictated tech dominance simply will not cut it against the freewheeling, open, global collaboration that made Silicon Valley the world’s high-tech hub.
Reducing the favoritism shown to both Boeing and China helps put the aid provided to them onto a more responsible path. While it is a large company, Boeing doesn’t represent 40 percent of US exports; and despite recent news that US tariffs are harming China’s economy, it is still stable and the second-largest economy in the world. Neither China nor Boeing should be the Ex-Im Bank’s largest beneficiaries, and thanks to a lack of quorum, they no longer are.
Nick Gillespie wisely warns of the dangers of greater government regulation of tech companies.