One more step back

More news has come out on the freezing of North Korean assets in Macao. Last week I wrote and said that the freezing of assets was just a political maneuver and didn’t really mean anything. Guess what? I was right. The freezing of assets took place months ago to help the Bank of China’s IPO and the release of the news this last week was timed to quell the rising tide of criticism against China for their position on NK. Here’s a link.And another step backThe Ministry of Information Industry has confirmed that “a clamp-down on foreign internet companies was imminent and some foreign internet companies could be stripped of their operating licenses.” This is coming as the internet is starting to boom in China and both the flow of information and money are enticing the Chinese central government to get involved. China has the second biggest internet market in the world, behind the US.It is not surprising that both of these issues about government control have more to do with money than concrete solutions to problems. While information is power and no one knows face like the Chinese, the bottom line is that the government, to stay legitimate must be at least financially viable. With more than 87,000 illegal protests in China last year alone and government corruption at new highs the government needs to be at least financially viable to maintain legitimacy and control. And since the government is directly responsible for 38% of GDP and employees about 1/3 of the urban work force government financial viability directly affects hundreds of millions of people!