- JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon says he isn’t afraid of China.
- Dimon said the US has many strengths over China, better relations with it neighbors.
- He said JPMorgan would exit China if the US governments orders it to.
On Wednesday, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon listed out various ways in which he says the US is ahead of China.
“I’m not afraid of China,” Dimon said at The New York Times DealBook Summit.
Dimon was responding to host Andrew Ross Sorkin’s question on why JPMorgan works with Beijing-based ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok — which some people think is a national security risk to the US.
The banking CEO defended JPMorgan’s position, saying the bank does its due diligence and would not work with anyone doing “truly bad” things.
Dimon also listed the America’s strengths over China: “We have all the food, oil, and energy. We have the Atlantic and the Pacific.”
The US also has friendly relations with its neighbors compared to China, said Dimon.
“We have not pissed off our neighbors. We’ve got great relations with Mexico and Canada,” said Dimon. In comparison, he said, China doesn’t appear to be such a good spot in a “complex neighborhood.”
“They’ve done a pretty good job angering all the people around them,” so much so that neighboring countries including Japan, the Philippines, and India are remilitarizing, said Dimon.
China isn’t even “great friends” with Russia — even though the two countries declared a “no limits” partnership with one another, he added.
And then, China’s got “terrible demographics,” said Dimon, referring to the country’s aging, shrinking population.
While JPMorgan has been expanding its footprint in China, Dimon said the bank would exit the market if US authorities him to.
“If for some reason the American government says, ‘Nope, can’t do that anymore,’ then so be it,” he said.
