Attorney Jonathan Bench, a regular contributor to China Law Blog and the chair of Harris Sliwoski’s corporate practice group, told the Epoch Times that by talking about China opening wider to the world, Xi is signaling that PRC can’t exist without engaging with the rest of the world despite it trying to boost it’s domestic consumption.
“Looking at the U.S. and its allies, that means dealing with head-to-head competition and making limited concessions, as China did in finally acquiescing to the PCAOB (the U.S. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board) inspectors auditing the books of public Chinese companies listed on U.S. exchanges,” said Bench, referring to the United States’ insistence on getting U.S.-listed Chinese companies to comply with American auditing requirements, which the firms were previously excused from.
The Chinese regime will continue to “negotiate and intimidate” while it deals with its allied countries or those saddled between the United States and China—doing this will ensure its domestic security, which largely means energy security at this point in time, according to Bench.