Where do your loyalties lie? China has some thoughts...

            In the article written by Keith Bradsher, “China: Time for Citizens Abroad to Payup on Taxes,” published in the New York Times, China’s propositions for a global tax is discussed. While the United States and other countries around the world allow for income-tax exemptions for expatriates, as Bradsher explains, China may begin to require income tax for her people living and earning money overseas.

            This is a move that might cause upheaval among other countries which are not enforcing a global tax on its citizens. Already, foreign workers in other countries may be accused of taking money out of the country in which they work, especially if they are only temporarily in that country and if they send that money to their home country. Some may argue that this takes, for example, American money out of America. This is on a personal level where a countryman’s income may be going to a foreign-countryman’s wallet; However, if China institutes a global tax, not only is money coming out of other countries, but it is going to fund the Chinese government. There are very high numbers of Chinese both in and out of China, so this could provide profound funding for the Chinese government at the expense of other countries.

            Upon reading this article, I had many questions. I had to look up the laws on resident-aliens paying taxes in America, that is, foreign workers who are not dual-citizens. The answer is that these workers do have to pay income tax to America, unless their earnings come from a job outside of the U.S. This prevents America from completely losing its capital to foreign nation’s workers. This may cause a problem for these citizens from China who would then have to pay two separate taxes, which would mean they would be earning less. This may deter Chinese citizens from working abroad, or it may cause more Chinese citizens to denounce their Chinese citizenship in order to become American-nationals.

            I have more questions still, such as, if the Chinese workers in other countries refuse to pay taxes to China, how will the Chinese government enforce this? I also wonder how generations of Chinese in foreign countries will be affected by this taxation. For instance, if a person living in America had lived in America since a young age but was born in China, will they have to pay the tax? The future is interesting...


-Crystal Hartsough


I wanted to add to this blog, some more thoughts on this issue.
In class, we are talking a lot about if China will or will not go to war with the United States. My answer is, if it is to happen in any way, China has already begun. Wars were fought in the past to preserve or obtain property, and Locke would likely agree. These days, it would seem ridiculous with the relationship China has with America for the two countries to go to an arms war. Instead, what will start to happen, I believe, is a trend more focused on corporations and international travel. Capital is going to be the next front for international conflict and battle, so to speak. Chinese immigrants in various countries, should this tax go into affect, will essentially be earning money for China. This is, I believe, the first step to an intellectually focused war based off of expatriates and companies going overseas and paying taxes to their home countries. If China institutes this tax, I firmly believe that the world powers will react in one of two ways: One, they will institute a similar tax or they will take measures to keep China from instituting this tax.
Should the powers institute a similar tax, the need for, say, Americans to go and work abroad in order to bring money into the countries from other countries will also increase, particularly in China where there are very large numbers of expatriates across the globe. The new arms race will be with the literal arms of their citizens, working abroad. 
This bodes well for me and my career aspirations in addition to my beliefs that the world is getting much, much smaller, but to those who believe the world is unchanging and that rational thinkers would protect their own at all costs, they might want to consider learning a foreign language.