CHINA: SOROS IS THE “SON OF SATAN”
The rich and powerful frequently collect enemies on their climb to the top but billionaire George Soros seems to have more than his share of haters. As part of an ongoing tit-for-tat, a Chinese media labeled him “the son of Satan”, among other choice epithets.
With a net worth estimated at $8.6 billion, George Soros represents a significant economic entity. Coupled with the $32 billion he has invested in his left-wing political “philanthropy”, The Open Society Foundations, Soros is as influential as some countries.
As a world player, Soros has been very critical of China. In an interview in Foreign Policy in 2015, Soros praised China’s economy as having “not only a more vigorous economy but actually a better functioning government than the United States.” But he also criticized China, saying, “ “China has risen very rapidly by looking out for its own interests … They have now got to accept responsibility for world order and the interests of other people as well.” At the same time, he suggested that an alliance between China and the US could avert a military confrontation.
But this possibility of an alliance disappeared after China recently instituted a wave of intense regulatory actions, prompting a sharp sell-off in shares of New York-listed Chinese companies, a move adopted by Soros’ investing companies. Soros warned that while new rules were designed to target tech companies, they should also be regarded as a sign that Chinese President Xi Jinping will do whatever it takes to stay in power.
But this possibility of an alliance disappeared after China recently instituted a wave of intense regulatory actions, prompting a sharp sell-off in shares of New York-listed Chinese companies, a move adopted by Soros’ investing companies. Soros warned that while new rules were designed to target tech companies, they should also be regarded as a sign that Chinese President Xi Jinping will do whatever it takes to stay in power.
President Xi tried to offset this loss in investment by offering business opportunities to investment corporations. Blackrock, the world’s largest asset manager, along with several other major investors, took advantage of those opportunities, entering the Chinese market as the country’s first wholly foreign-owned mutual fund, raising $1.03 billion from more than 111,000 investors. With such results, many other investment corporations followed suit.
In an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal headlined “BlackRock’s China Blunder”, Soros criticized BlackRock. Soros warned the western investors by accusing China’s President Xi Jinping of carrying out the socialist agenda of nationalizing the private sector by turning all of China’s companies into “instruments of the state.”
Soros wrote that Blackrock clients are likely to lose money and the national security interests of the U.S. and other democracies will be damaged. Soros unequivocally sees China as an adversary, writing that “the U.S. and China are engaged in a life-and-death conflict between two systems of governance: repressive and democratic.”
He called for the US government to counter the effects of the Chinese government manipulating business and investing.
The People’s Republic of China responded harshly to the billionaire’s accusations. The PRC-controlled media, The Global Times, a Chinese government-controlled media, published an op-ed titled “This global economic terrorist is staring at China!”, on September 4th naming Soros as the culprit. The article accused Soros of providing finance to Hong Kong’s jailed newspaper owner Jimmy Lai to support the city’s anti-Beijing protests in 2019. The article claimed his motivation was sour grapes over dumping investments in China that later proved to be enormously lucrative.
The op-ed also described Soros as“the most evil person in the world” and“the son of Satan.”
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