Foreign Affairs - 03.2020 - 04.2020

(Frankie) #1
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

15_Sitaraman_pp3_Blues.indd 119 1/20/20 7:24 PM

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