The moral rhetoric of U.S. corporations such as Coca-Cola, Dell, Hewlett Packard, and Walmart often ends at the impassable moral wall of Communist China.
But no corporation can rival the capricious greed that now defines Intel. The U.S. technology giant claims to stand for “social equity and human rights.” In China, Intel has made clear that it stands for genocide.
That might sound like strong language, but it’s the only way to accurately describe the import of what Intel had to say on Thursday. Intel took to Chinese social media to “deeply apologize for the confusion caused to our respected Chinese customers, partners and the public.”
What is this eloquent apology for, you ask?
Intel’s warning to its suppliers last week of its need to comply with a new U.S. law that restricts imports from China’s Xinjiang province. That law targets Xinjiang exports that may have been made with forced labor. The law was introduced in response to the Chinese Communist Party’s genocide against its Uyghur population. One to two million Uyghurs have been imprisoned in concentration camps, in which they have been forcibly reeducated, raped, sterilized, and occasionally murdered. These innocent people have then been deployed as slave-like forced labor, relocated far away from their families and homes.
In response to Intel’s simple statement of legal fact, the Communist Party mobilized its supporters to heap pressure on the company. An editorial in the hard-liner Global Times warned that “what we need to do is to make it increasingly expensive for companies to offend China so their losses outweigh their gains.”
Intel got the message.
Its apology shows that when it comes to genocide or Communist gold, genocide matters little. How CEO Pat Gelsinger aligns this action with his Twitter bio proclamation that “Values are most enduring thing leaders create” is unclear. Especially, that is, since Intel’s products have previously been shown as being used in support of the Uyghur genocide.
Regardless, Intel is ready to make amends. With Xi Jinping’s regime, that is. In its Thursday statement, the company added that it “is committed to becoming a trusted technology partner and accelerating joint development with China.”
Considering its apparently absolute moral vacuum, this commitment by the chip giant presumably extends to helping the People’s Liberation Army. Perhaps helping the PLA access technology which improves its ability to kill U.S. Marines, Sailors, and Airmen. Congress should pay close attention.
To be sure, Intel is not the only entity with this genocide problem. The confectionery giant Mars is another. So, too, are Muslim majority governments like those of Pakistan, Syria, the United Arab Emirates, and the Taliban. The European Union’s refusal to join a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing 2022 Olympics (of which Intel is a key sponsor) is also noteworthy.
Yet this is still a sad day. Intel was once a giant engine of American innovation and global leadership. Now it stands as an open ally to evil. For Intel, greed has become an end in and of itself. Fat with Communist gold, Intel will assist genocide to earn more of it. I’m reminded of Malcolm’s warning in Macbeth.
“And my more-having would be as a sauce
To make me hunger more, that I should forge
Quarrels unjust against the good and loyal,
Destroying them for wealth.”
