On Tuesday, National Legal and Policy Center presented a “Congruency Report on Privacy and Human Rights” proposal at Mastercard Inc.‘s annual shareholder meeting, which would require the company to explain the incongruencies between its publicized human rights positions versus its actions.
The company’s board of directors opposed our proposal, as explained on page 117 in its proxy statement. NLPC’s response to Mastercard’s opposition statement was filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission last month.
Speaking as sponsor of the resolution was Paul Chesser, director of NLPC’s Corporate Integrity Project. A transcript of his three-minute remarks, which you can listen to here, follows:
Mastercard and its Chairman/CEO Michael Miebach have been chomping at the bit for years to begin domestic payments processing in the People’s Republic of China.
In a race to get out in front of Visa, its strongest competitor, Mr. Miebach formed a business partnership with Chinese state-run NetsUnion Clearing Corporation, or NUCC.
Mr. Miebach was so excited that the People’s Bank of China, the country’s central bank, approved Mastercard’s partnership with NUCC, while Visa has not been approved yet.
Ever since that happened in November, Mastercard has raced to get operational in China.
Mr. Miebach said, “The fact that we are well-positioned today with banks gives us an edge here on moving forward at speed.”
It’s amazing, really, how this whole deal suddenly came together.
On November 15th, Chinese Communist Party Chairman and genocide practitioner Xi Jinping was honored at a $40,000-a-plate dinner in San Francisco.
Some of Corporate America’s most recognized China suck-up executives attended and sponsored the event, including Mastercard’s Merit Janow.
Only five days later, on November 20th, Mastercard announced that they had their approval for the joint venture with the communist-controlled NUCC!
How about that!!
Take that, Visa!
Now our proposal, Proposal 6, asks Mastercard to explain how all this hot pursuit to do business with China’s communist-controlled business entities is congruent with the human rights protections that Mastercard espouses.
In its opposition response to our proposal, Mastercard says it has policies – lots of policies.
It has a policy on information security, a policy on data protection, a policy on global data privacy, a policy on data responsibility, a policy on modern-day slavery, a policy on human trafficking, and a policy on human rights.
If you have questions or doubts about how Mastercard protects the oppressed in China, the company has many words on their many policy webpages, in hopes that it will ease your concerns.
Mr. Miebach wants you to believe that when Chairman Xi and the CCP come calling to Mastercard and its business partner NUCC, looking for credit card data and transactions of dissident citizens who criticize the government, that Mastercard will point Chairman Xi to its various policy webpages.
Those policies should put the fear of God into Chairman Xi, and his communist gestapo will most certainly back off at the sight of them!
Seriously, Mastercard being in bed with China’s abusive and dictatorial government, in an effort to beat Visa to the punch, is reminiscent of Ford and GM trying to outdo each other in order to service Hitler and the Nazis before and during World War II.
The only difference now, is we already know that China is committing slavery and genocide.
Please vote FOR Proposal 6.
Read NLPC’s shareholder proposal for the Mastercard Inc. annual meeting here.
Read NLPC’s report filed at the SEC in support of its proposal here.
Listen to Chesser’s three-minute remarks in support of the proposal here.
