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US-China relations
OpinionWorld Opinion
Alex Lo

My Take | American financial exploitation vs Chinese financial repression

The superpowers’ rivalry is not so much about competing social-economic systems, but two different versions of capitalism

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While the US is imposing high tariffs on friend and foe alike, nominally communist China has been promoting free trade and defending globalisation. Photo: EPA
Alex Loin Toronto
When asked during a US Senate hearing about the meaning of habeas corpus, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem gave a jaw-dropping reply.

“Well, habeas corpus is a constitutional right that the president has to be able to remove people from this country,” she said.

Whatever you think of her answer, it makes perfect sense for an administration that either doesn’t know or doesn’t care about this foundational legal concept on which Western liberal democracy and the rule of law are supposedly built.

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It is perhaps only a slight exaggeration to say that America has become its opposite – neither liberal nor democratic, neither free nor egalitarian.

In a lengthy interview with Jiefang Daily from Shanghai, economist Michael Hudson explained how this had come to pass in his country.

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“The United States is a neoliberal economy dominated by finance capital. Its political aim is to dismantle government regulation and privatise basic infrastructure, and to make financial centres – Wall Street – the economy’s central planner,” he said.

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