I warned on Nov. 19 that American CEOs need to understand the full extent of their companies’ exposure to Chinese government retaliation. The august New York Times published this piece today, almost 10 days after my blog post, concurring with my warning.
In it, Alexandra Stevenson and Paul Mozur describe how the Chinese are withholding batteries from a California-based drone maker, Skydio, forcing it to dramatically reduce shipments of drones to its American customers, including the U.S. military. Not that the Communist Party needed any laws to take action but they have put a legal system in place to justify what they may do on a grander scale: “The broader reach of these laws enables Beijing to potentially choke global access to critical materials like rare earths and lithium–essential components in everything from smart phones to electric vehicles.”
Things are going to get nasty.
