Bank Secrecy vs Transparency in China: A Global Threat to Open Governance
China’s approach to governance is built on secrecy, surveillance, and control, suppressing independent journalism, censoring digital information, and prioritizing bilateral relationships over multilateral ones. This emphasis on secrecy has far-reaching implications for countries that do business with China, threatening their institutions, economies, and democratic values.
The Drive to Export Secrecy
Beijing’s drive to export secrecy is a critical dimension of its foreign power projection. By writing secrecy clauses into agreements, China is able to keep the terms of its deals hidden from public scrutiny. This enables Chinese authorities to exploit other nations, undermining their sovereignty and integrity.
Consequences of Secrecy
The consequences of China’s secrecy push are severe:
- Opaque government processes can lead to corruption, reducing countries’ attractiveness to foreign investors and eroding the sustainability of independent institutions.
- Secrecy threatens the nongovernmental sphere, including the media, universities, and technology firms.
A Call to Action for Democracies
Democracies must respond to these challenges by:
- Strongly prioritizing transparency and reaffirming principles and practices of openness
- Using their competitive advantage in openness to expose China’s secretive and often corrupting practices
- Sharpening the distinction between their approach to governance and China’s
- Strengthening their transparency efforts
Developing Structures and Instruments
Open societies must also develop:
- New and adaptable coalitions to negotiate with China from a position of greater strength
- Structures to challenge Chinese companies to make all of their contracts transparent
Pushback Against Secrecy
As China continues to prioritize secrecy over transparency, it is essential that open societies push back against this trend. By highlighting Beijing’s use of secrecy to dominate and exploit other countries, democracies can challenge the Chinese party state’s ability to operate with impunity.
A Global Response
Ultimately, the global community must come together to address the threat posed by China’s drive to export secrecy. This requires a purposeful and sustained response from democracies to:
- Expose and neutralize this systemic threat to open and accountable governance
- Promote transparency, accountability, and openness in all aspects of governance
- Strengthen international cooperation and multilateral institutions to counter the Chinese party state’s efforts to undermine global values and norms.