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Opinion
Michael Bloomberg in the White House? China might say thanks, but no thanks
- The billionaire’s history of self-censorship with regard to China is a liability with voters that his rivals in the presidential race would seize on. This would make China-related issues a focus in the election, a turn of event Beijing would not welcome
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Robert Boxwell has worked and lived in the Asia-Pacific region since the early 1990s.
You might think former New York City mayor and billionaire businessman Michael Bloomberg’s entry into the 2020 US presidential race would be welcomed by Beijing. Bloomberg has been a compliant capitalist in China for years, especially since he learned his lesson about discussing sensitive topics in 2012.
After Bloomberg News ran a story on the wealth of then vice-president Xi Jinping’s family, Beijing blocked Bloomberg sites in China and quietly banned state-owned enterprises from buying Bloomberg terminals, his business’s largest revenue generator.
Yet he managed to get back in Beijing’s good graces. It couldn’t have hurt that, in 2013, it was reported that Bloomberg News had spiked a similar story, about “hidden financial ties between one of the wealthiest men in China and the families of top Chinese leaders”. In a further act of simpatico politics, he chose Shanghai for the 2018 launch of his New Economy Forum. The trade war put the kibosh on that – it was moved to Singapore – but this year’s event will be held in Beijing in a couple of weeks.
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