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Comment by coffeeblack | Hacker News Reader

Rich Chinese are getting their money out of the country, because if their money is in China, they don't really own it. The CCP could take it any day and there would be nothing they could do about it.

And then there is Western capital, used to rule of law and personal property. They don't see that reality as a realistic threat. So they keep pumping money into China. It will work. Until it doesn't. And then the CCP will simply take it.

But somehow I suspect that it will be a "too big to fail" situation, and all those losses will be socialized in the West, i.e. the Western governments pay for the losses probably.

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>because if their money is in China, they don't really own it

The same can be said about money moved to the West, just with a different risk profile. As the Russian situation has shown, your property can be creatively taken away if your country of origin pisses off the US too much.

The Russians whose capital had been frozen have direct ties to and prop up Putin.

I don’t think you’d be able to name a single case that isn’t T like that.

How about Arkady Volozh? He got sanctioned not because he has "direct ties to and props up Putin", but because Yandex operates in Russia and has to follow its rules.

Just look at the length of the list with sanctioned persons. Are you seriously saying that all of them have "direct ties to and prop up Putin"?

Yandex has started filtering out independent news about the war while he still was the CEO. He wouldn't have been sanctioned if he resigned when Yandex received that request.

1) You are moving the goalpost compared to GP.

2) Yandex was understandably cautious in the light of the new Russian laws, which effectively put a censorship net on coverage of the war.

3) Are you saying that Volozh should have followed the unspoken Western rules in operation of a business in Russia (read: he should've acted to please the West as much as he can, anticipating its demands) or risk loosing access to all his property in the West without any warning? And you think the Chinese will not see it as a potential risk?

I think it is pretty clear that once your money are out of China you'd have a choice if shit hits the fan: lose the money in the West and stay in 3rd world or another fascist state (that China will turn into if not there yet), or lose some money in China and relinquish control of involved companies, but be free in the West.

> How about Arkady Volozh?

He was sanctioned by the EU, no the US.

1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arkady_Volozh

2) https://www.reuters.com/technology/yandex-ceo-volozh-resigns...

Unfortunately for Chinese businessmen this also applies to many of them, not directly, but through shared Communist party membership.

https://daily.jstor.org/communist-party-of-china/

> Regulations require that all state-owned enterprises and private companies operate party branches, and even some foreign-owned companies like Walmart have them. Internally, the organization can serve as a fertile networking ground. And for entrepreneurs, party membership often brings better relations with local government officials.

What I said was already 10+ ago in Hurun Report about why Chinese money flees to the West. But Chinese rich should probably ask you for advice.

And yet we don't see capital flight from western countries to Russia and China. People with skin in the game are sending their money and kids to NATO countries.

Well those are some dumbass rich Chinese people, after 2022 they expect what happened to Russians in the west won't happen to them when a Taiwan war starts?

Come on you can't really talk about Rule of law when its as fluid as the west wants it to be right? When it comes to Russia and China they can quickly find majority rule to change laws.

Aah well its not my money on the line :p

Nothing happened to "Russians in the West". There are literally millions of such, some quite wealthy, untouched.

Instead "very specific Russians" who had their wealth tied to the Russian state, were targetted.

This is a very important difference, completely followed a legal and standard procedures, was not arbitrary or decided upon by a dictator, or single person.

So no, "rich Chinese people" are not "dumbasses". And most are not "rich", but what the West would describe as "moderately wealthy".

M, not B wealth.

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