Editor’s note for Thursday, April 1, 2021

My thoughts today:

Global business executives face some uncomfortable questions in China, says the Financial Times in an article on Western brands “caught up in a battle the U.S. and its allies are waging with Beijing over its persecution of Uyghur Muslims.”

Money quote: “Companies are frozen like rabbits in the headlights,” said Alison Taylor of New York University’s Stern business school. “The supply chain oversight nightmare is coming to a head.”

Another way of putting it is a quote from an unnamed senior German official by the Watching China in Europe newsletter: “Are we prepared to live with a Volkswagen that is half the size of what it is now? That is what this boils down to. That is the debate we need to have.”

Our word of the day is confidentiality clause (保密条款 bǎomì tiáokuǎn).

—Jeremy Goldkorn, Editor-in-Chief