I support Hong Kong and their protest against the Chinese government’s infringements on on their freedom. Surprisingly, that honestly wasn’t that hard to write, but based on what’s happening in the US now you’d think I was a geopolitical analyst to have an opinion on what’s going on between the China and Hong Kong.
Funnily enough, I was in both China and Hong Kong this year. The people I met in both places were extremely generous, helpful, and good to me and my wife. I loved my visit to both places. However, I don’t think that excuses the Chinese Government from clamping down on the economic and political freedom of Hong Kong. In America, I think what has most surprised me most is that American companies have refused to even back American constitutional values . If they don’t want to come out with an opinion on the conflict, that’s fine, but at least come out and say “We support American values and we support Free Speech.” The fact that isn’t occurring proves how dangerous the control China exerts over American companies has become.
If I was a CEO of an American company I would certainly pause before accepting Chinese money or launching in China. Yes, there are duties to shareholders and growth is important, but the collateral damage you might face at home could offset any gains you forecast. Secondly, you’re at the mercy of an authoritarian and dangerous regime. How do you explain that risk in the Annual Report? Which is why I’m excited to see PayPal’s next report, because recently they bought a payments license and plan on going head to head against some of the biggest and best fintech firms in the world, while being American… The story is below.
PayPal buys Guofubao Information Technology Company (GoPay), secures Chinese payments license. PayPal has become the first foreign firm to get an online payments license in China after buying a 70% stake in GoPay. GoPay holds a Chinese payment business license, meaning that PayPal becomes the first foreign company to enter the Chinese market some 2 years after Beijing promised to open up. PayPal will be able to offer online, mobile and cross-border payments, taking on market giants WeChat Pay and Alipay.
I’m looking forward to how this plays out. That PayPal hasn’t addressed this already is a fact they don’t have a clue on what to say. They’ll let this play out and hope it doesn’t come out soon. On my side, I can’t help but speculate what they had to give the Chinese Government in order to enter the China… Scary.