The physical intrusion, conducted with “counterparts from the national competition authorities of the Member States,” however, is just “a preliminary investigative step,” Brussels says, and “that the Commission carries out such inspections does not mean that the company in question has indeed received distortive foreign subsidies, nor does it prejudge the outcome of the investigation.”

Even if you think there’s something real here, a raid is pretty heavy handed for an investigation in its early stages. You usually wait until you have basically everything you need, then do the raid, because if you don’t find what you’re looking for you’ve let the target know what you’re doing. In the U.S. you’d need a warrant for this sort of thing, which again means you’re beyond the “preliminary” stages.

We all know that it’s not a matter of if there was wrongdoing, or not. Or are they going to go raid the offices of American and other western companies next? Are they going to give them equal treatment? Or are all the inconveniences (and it certainly sounds like however you look at it it it was also that- an inconvenience, a disruption- awfully convenient, if only such diligent rule of law could be applied to less melanated, lighter haired, western individuals), somehow focused around the non-western companies who conveniently happen to come from the country that’s being slandered as the “yellow peril?” Where’s this treatment for non-Chinese?

And let’s not forget to address the elephant in the room- Europe and the west is playing a blatant game of hypocrisy and double standards. But then, if the west did not have double standards (which even then have to be bolstered with heaping doses of lies and slander on the entire non-western, non-white world) they would have no standards at all.

Whatever the outcome is, I’m sure we’ll see a lot of hot air on the Europeans’ side. But two can play at the same game (albeit only one side with actual legitimacy- and it’s not Europe) and I hope in time they do, and needless to say the Europeans will not enjoy what comes (entirely deserved) of that- for with even a fraction of the scrutiny, and the treatment, that China and other non-western countries receive, (and without the western smears no less) and a hell entirely of their own making (and long overdue) will be on their heads.

have received foreign subsidies

Remember when Russian police raided various orgs that are receiving foreign payments? Remember the stink the press raised over that?

Guess that’s different

“May have received foreign subsidies” seems like an extremely flimsy justification for an all out raid. By the time you are raiding an office, you should basically already be sure of the wrongdoing and are just gathering up additional evidence. You don’t raid offices based on a hunch or as a preliminary investigation.

“If there is no wrong doing there is nothing to worry about” is a ridiculous argument. If the police bust in your house and search the place because of an anonymous tip (which would be more evidence than they have here), you would be fine with it? Or would you also react exactly like the Chinese chamber of commerce?

Even if we grant that there is some real financial wrongdoing here, which at this point I would be unlikely to believe, you don’t start your investigation with a raid. Even if I were a diehard Team EU fan, it is a terrible idea. If the company was doing anything wrong and didn’t keep evidence on site, you have just given them plenty of time to destroy it or move it. You don’t raid somewhere without prior knowledge that the thing you are looking for is at the raid site because you are just fishing and hoping the evidence will be there. It’s terrible police work.