More than that, Beijing’s pressure on Hong Kong companies could easily go global. If CCP cadres use their economic leverage over Hong Kong executives to stifle dissent against China, what’s stopping them from doing the same to American, European, or Japanese managers worldwide? Here we find what may be the darkest side of the integration of authoritarian China into the global economy. Companies from Starbucks to Apple have become heavily reliant on Chinese consumers to drive revenue growth, and it is not unreasonable to think that Beijing could capitalize on those business interests to impose its political views on the world.

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To an extent, Beijing already has. It’s become almost routine for Hollywood producers to scrub scripts of anything that might offend thin-skinned Chinese censors and prevent a film from showing in lucrative Chinese theaters. Companies that accidentally tread on Chinese political sensitivities—by, for instance, including Taiwan among countries on their websites (Beijing considers the island part of China)—bring its ire upon them. Amid the Hong Kong scrape, Versace and Coach had to issue groveling apologies after angry Chinese perceived that they were listing the city as independent from China on their products.

But the case of Sy’s firing shows that Beijing is turning up the heat further still. The CCP is intervening directly in the staffing decisions of firms, pitting managers against their own employees, and enforcing Beijing’s wishes in an area beyond the direct control of China’s surveillance state.

No company has come under greater distress than Cathay Pacific. Earlier this month, China’s aviation authority ordered the airline to remove any cabin crew involved in Hong Kong’s protests from flights to the mainland, claiming that such a step was meant to “improve flight safety and security.” Not complying was really not much of an option. Though Cathay Pacific is a major international carrier that flies everywhere from New York to New Delhi, a substantial part of its business is funneling passengers to China, especially on planes operated by its subsidiary Cathay Dragon.

The Chinese edict threw the airline into turmoil. Several days later, Rupert Hogg, Cathay’s CEO, warned employees that the company had “a zero-tolerance approach to illegal activities” and threatened that staff participating in demonstrations could face termination. The airline quickly suspended a pilot involved in the protests. Hogg himself became a victim, unexpectedly resigning to “take responsibility” for the airline’s woes.

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Then came Sy’s sudden sacking. She claims that she was fired in a meeting with airline representatives after confirming that screenshots of Facebook posts were from her account, though she said she was given no explanation for her dismissal. (Later, Sy admitted publicly to posting pro-protest material on her Facebook page.) A Hong Kong union group called Sy's firing a “blatant act of suppression." Why Sy was outright fired rather than reassigned to work that would not take her to China remains unclear. When I posed this question to a Cathay spokesman, the company replied in a statement that “we cannot comment on individual cases,” but then proceeded to do just that, saying Sy’s dismissal had nothing to do with her activities as the chief of a flight attendants’ union. More generally, the company added that such personnel decisions are based on “all relevant circumstances including applicable regulatory requirements and the employee’s ability to perform his/her job.”