Chinese competition law: the anaconda in the chandelier

Back in 2002, the China scholar (and my first teacher of Chinese) Perry Link published in the New York Review of Books what has now become, at least in the world of China studies, a famous essay: "The Anaconda in the Chandelier" [NYRB link | non-paywalled Word version]. In it, he explored the mechanisms of self-censorship, conscious and unconscious, that operate not just among Chinese--for example, the vague dread of crossing an unstated line--but also among foreigners who comment on Chinese affairs, including the fear of visa denial.

That anaconda seems to be present again today (I won't say visible, because one characteristic of the anaconda is that you don't see it) at the hearings of the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (the USCC) on the foreign investment climate in China, particular as regards competition policy.

China's competition policy has been very much in the news in the last several months; I blogged last September about a highly critical report issued by the US Chamber of Commerce. But although a lot of people want to talk about it, there are also a lot of people who don't, and the presence of the anaconda is manifested by their absence from the hearings.

Here's where I must regrettably get a little mysterious. I know some people who know something about Chinese competition law. One of them, my colleague Bill Kovacic, a former chairman of the FTC, knows a lot about Chinese competition law and is testifying today. Another, however, commented (as slightly edited by me):

Bill will have the courage to say important things. No business wanted to go on the record. [Having been able to pre-read the comments of some panelists], I can tell you that that everyone who has a potential business interest (law firm and consulting firm) will really soft-pedal some procedural fairness issues as well as mention of some industrial policy.

Not having read the comments and not knowing enough about competition policy, I do not know whether witnesses are in fact pulling their punches. But there are some academics who really know a lot about Chinese competition law other than Bill Kovacic, and they are not on the witness list. Obviously, I am not naming any names, but in at least one case the person concerned turned down the opportunity to testify because of visa concerns related both to the content of the testimony and to the fact that it would be before the USCC, which is viewed by the PRC authorities as hostile. (Personally, I don't think that an academic would get on the visa blacklist just for badmouthing the NDRC before the USCC, but everyone has to make their own judgment in these things, so I'm not criticizing.) This is a real shame. Not only is the USCC being deprived of good information, but the Chinese government itself has, as they say in Chinese, lifted a rock only to drop it on its own feet (搬起石头打自己的脚): the threat of visa denial for testifying before the USCC will disproportionately drive away witnesses who are less hostile to the Chinese government, since the more hostile ones have presumably already decided to accept the consequences or are on the blacklist already.