MOSCOW, May 27 (RIA Novosti), Daria Chernyshova – The Chinese government is sending a warning message to the US that economic sanctions could backfire, professor of international business at the Fisher College of Business, told RIA Novosti Tuesday.
“This is a message that economic sanctions, if the US were to think of those, would backfire,” Oded Shenkar said. “If you look at what happened vis-a-vis Russia recently, in Iran, in Syria, economic sanctions are likely to be used by the US. So China is sending a message – don’t mess with us, try not to go down that road, as you will be harmed,” he added.
Chinese government has ordered state-owned enterprises to cut ties with US consulting companies, including McKinsey and Boston Consulting Group over fears they are spying on behalf of the US government.
“That’s probably one measure in the continuing deterioration that has been going for a while, I think,” Oded Shenkar told RIA Novosti. “The relationships between the countries haven’t been on a very positive course for a long time, in many ways this is a continuation of a trend.”
Shenkar also noted that consultancy companies were chosen as the target for a number of reasons, including the fear that these companies are not localized and the lack of significant contribution of the US consultants.
People’s Bank of China and the Ministry of Finance have called on its banks to remove International Business Machines Corp’s (IBM) servers as they compromise the nation’s financial security. The servers are potentially to be replaced with a local analogue.
“The Chinese want to establish their own standard. They were very critical about the Internet regime, arguing that it is basically controlled by the US, they have managed to install their own payment processing system, leaving the foreigners out,” Oded Shenkar commented on the move.
He added that Beijing now wants “to upgrade their own players and better compete, as well as prepare them for the international market.”
Shenkar stressed that there might be more messages sent by Beijing, and as China has commitments to the WTO, they are likely “to take the form of something that is behind the scenes.”
“I believe they may tug players that are in their view dominant in the Chinese market. For instance, the automakers. They will look for ways to provide support to the local players,” Shenkar said.
Beijing’s messages come days after the US Justice Department charged a number of Chinese government officials with cyber espionage. Beijing earlier warned that it would retaliate if Washington pressed ahead with allegations that Chinese military officers had hacked into US corporations including Alcoa, US Steel and Westinghouse.
