Foreign Affairs - 03.2020 - 04.2020

Too Big to Prevail

March/April 2020 119

an “erroneous message” and had “hurt the feelings o

 people” in

China. The People’s Daily, China’s largest newspaper, later branded

Mercedes-Benz as an “enemy o

 the people.”

Such conduct by Western companies illustrates a broader point: they

act based on their commercial interests, not in the name o

 abstract

democratic principles or for the cause o

 U.S. national security. The

same is true when these companies try to in uence government policy.

The potential stakes are high. The U.S. Department o

 Commerce, for

instance, has the power to set export restrictions on some sensitive tech-

nologies, including „…; those restrictions may be important from a na-

tional security standpoint, even i

 they negatively a‡ect some companies’

bottom lines. Yet the dominant ideology among corporate lawyers today

holds that the sole aim o

 managers is to maximize shareholder pro‰ts,

and corporate lobbyists are thus likely to advocate public policies that

support those pro‰ts even i

 they run counter to U.S. national interests.

Practically all U.S. companies active in China are subject to such

pressures to one degree or another, and how to address that predica-

ment is another question altogether. But the size and dominance o

American technology companies are part o

 the problem. As the U.S.

technology sector becomes more concentrated and the few players in it

ALY

SONG

/ REUTERS

Don’t be evil: a security guard at Google oces in Shanghai, April 2016

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