Wal-Mart moves into communism market

Wal-Mart, the global retailer that made its way to the top of the global retailing game by being an opportunistic capitalist, has now entered the Communist party. Well, sort of.

Wal-Mart has apparently opened a communist party branch in the Chinese city of Shenyang, and it includes a Communist Youth League branch and a trade union -- which were set up earlier this month.

So far, it looks like Wal-Mart does not want to comment on this. The AP reports that its calls to the Wal-Mart Chinese headquarters in Shenzhen were unanswered. Yeah right -- like this can be kept quiet.

I doubt that Wal-Mart happily agreed to join the Commies, but guess that it instead submitted to strong-arm tactics by the burgeoning economy and world superpower known as China. Make no mistake -- there are two superpowers on the Earth today. This ain't the 1980s.

Influence by the Communist Party in the operations of foreign companies doing business in China is nothing new. But even the world's largest retailer is now feeling the heat. As a retailer and manufacturer, one cannot simply ignore China's potential market and manufacturing scale these days, or be left behind by all the competitors that will step on your back to do the same thing.

Brian White has worked in various executive positions in technology and telecommunications and now focuses on editing and writing.