Showing that even the most sophisticated CEOs make occasional gaffes, 65-year-old JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon stepped into it saying he thought JPMorgan would outlast the Chinese Communist Party. “I made a joke the other day that the Communist Party is celebrating its 100th years—so is JPMorgan. I’d make a bet that we last longer,” Dimon said while speaking at a Boston College in series on interviews with CEOs. Dimon broke former General Electric [CEO] Jack Welch’s cardinal rule to never speak ill about your friends or adversaries. Dimon’s joke prompted an almost immediate mea culpa from the world’s most famous CEO. “I regret and should not have made that comment. I was trying to emphasize the strength and longevity our company,” Dimon said, worried that his thoughtless words could wind up hurting JPMorgan or its clients’ business in China.
Dimon apparently let his guard down in the Biden administration’s new normal of bashing world leaders, especially Communist adversaries. “It’s never right to joke about or denigrate any group of people, whether it’s a country, its leadership, or any part of a society and culture. Speaking in that way can take away from constructive and thoughtful dialogue in society, which is needed more now that ever,” Dimon said, speaking like Jack Welch’s CEO 101 training. For Dimon, it’s not about what he knew was appropriate behavior, it’s about acting impulsively, then having to clean up his own mess. Apologizing so profusely also has its downside, especially if it looks insincere or staged by professional damage control or crisis communication experts. Dimon’s mea culpa made him look foolish of starting the controversy to begin with, then trying to put the genie back in the bottle.
Dimon’s mea culpa highlights what’s gone awry with 79-year-old President Joe Biden and his chief diplomat, 59-year-old Secretary of State Antony Blinken, both of whom can’t control their mouths, ripping Russia and China at will, as if they were both talking about former President Donald Trump. Biden and Blinken couldn’t stop the vitriol flowing freely at Russia and China since taking office. Dimon admitted that his joke about the Chinese Communist Party [CCP] went over like a lead balloon. Biden called 69-year-old Russian President a “soulless killer” March 16, only two days before he sent Blinken and 44-year-old National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan to Anchorage, Alaska to insult Chinese President Xi Jinping and the CCP. Blinken and Sullivan accused Beijing of committing “genocide” on Muslim Uyghurs in Western China, something not supported by any facts.
Questions arise now why a savvy CEO like Dimon would risk JPMorgan’s businesses interests in Communist China, knowing the bigger picture of Beijing cracking down on pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong, threatening Taiwan and accusing the U.S. of creating the deadly novel coronavirus. “Dimon’s apology shows the degree of deference foreign businesses have to show the Chinese government in order to remain in its good graces and maintain access to the country’s markets,” said Eswar Prasad, economics and trade professor at Cornell University. Dimon’s remarks prompted a sarcastic response from Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Zhao Lijian. “Why the publicity stunt with some grandstanding remarks?” asked Lijian in a transcript. Lijian famously said March 13, 2020, two days after the World Health Organization [WHO] declared a global pandemic, the U.S. created the virus.
Dealing with the CCP is never easy for any foreign leader from Western democracies because there are two sides of every story in the Western press. In China, Dimon knows, it’s their way or the highway, only one narrative, unless, of course, the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing. Lijian insists, as officials CCP spokesman, that the deadly virus was made in America and exported to China by the U.S. military. At the same time, the CCP insists that the virus occurred naturally from a wet or seafood market in Wuhan, China, while Lijian tells the world the virus was made in America. So whatever contradictions come from the CCP, they have to be ignored, because there’s no rhyme-or-reason to official government statements. Dimon’s gaffe suggests something much more going on than simply a verbal blunder from the world’s longest serving CEO.
Dimon’s mea culpa put an unnecessary burden on JPMorgan for admitting to an unforgivable gaffe, when, in fact, it was a foolish joke that backfired. But stressing so much of what’s proper for a CEO dealing with foreign countries confesses for all to see that he committed an undeniable blunder. China looks for anything done in America to expose the hypocrisy and fallacy of U.S. democracy. When Blinken and Sullivan insulted the Chinese delegation in Anchorage March 18, senior Chinese diplomat Yang Jiechi slapped back at the insults. Jiechi said how can a country that admits to “systemic racism” lecture any country about human rights? “Jamie Dimon’s best and worst trait is that he speaks his mind,” said Wells Fargo CEO Mike Mayo. Mayo, who’s always in Dimon’s shadow, loves to take a cheap shot. Dimon’s gaffe could have been handled differently, rather than confessing to an unpardonable sin.
