Beijing Rules

China has politicized and weaponized economic sanctions.

The United States and China are the globe’s two great powers, but they take different approaches toward flexing their economic muscles. Washington, DC, uses economic punishments such as trade embargoes and asset freezes as coercive tools, but only in what could be deemed extreme circumstances. The United States wields its economic might to fight terrorism or human rights violations, but it typically does not wield this power to achieve unilateral and purely political purposes. So professors can get visas even if their research criticizes US policy, or foreign investors can make deals in America despite past jibes at US political decisions. President Donald Trump shifted some of these norms, but the broad outlines remain unchanged.

On the other hand, Beijing uses tailored sanctions to punish individual critics. Thus governments and foreign investors that do business with China are compelled to engage in self-censorship, otherwise they risk their relationships with the nation. The release of the Disney film Kunlun offers one example: The story of the Dalai Lama so offended...