“The perception of economic harm can have an outsized effect on domestic interests, creating pressures for rapid political compromise,” according to research on China’s power for economic coercion over Australia.

And the pressure for rapid compromise is also what makes global brands buckle so quickly. Australia, however, may have more strength in this area than generally believed.

The larger question is whether Western consumers and politicians will mobilise to defend free speech as vigorously as China has done to protect its conception of its territorial sovereignty.

(From The Age, on the global response to China’s outrage over the NBA manager’s comments on the Hong Kong protests. )