JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon apologized Wednesday for saying a day earlier that his financial institution would outlast China’s Communist Party.
"I regret and should not have made that comment," Dimon said. "I was trying to emphasize the strength and longevity of our company."
During an event at Boston College on Tuesday, Dimon was asked about doing business in China, Bloomberg reported.
"We hope to be there for a long time," Dimon said Tuesday, Bloomberg reported.
The CEO then relayed a joke he made during a recent visit to Hong Kong: "The Communist Party is celebrating its 100th year. So is JPMorgan. And I'll make you a bet we last longer.”
The Wall Street Journal watched a video of the recording and said Dimon added with a laugh: "I can’t say that in China. They probably are listening anyway."
A spokesman for JPMorgan told the Journal that the firm is committed to China, and that Dimon "acknowledges he should not speak lightly or disrespectfully about another country or its leadership."
The spokesman added that Dimon, 65, also said he strongly supports a constructive and detailed economic dialogue with China.
JPMorgan has a lot riding on maintaining good relations with the Chinese government as it seeks to expand its business in the communist country.
Bloomberg reported that members of the New York-based bank’s government-relations team and China offices had internal discussions about Dimon’s remarks.
Sources told Bloomberg that some JPMorgan executives worried that the joke could be viewed as insensitive. The government-relations team, though, told the group that Dimon intended to stress the longevity of JPMorgan’s China business rather than criticize China.
JPMorgan was the first among its Wall Street peers to get Chinese regulators’ approval to take full control of securities and futures businesses in the world’s second-largest economy.
The bank is seeking to become the first foreign bank to have a full suite of wholly owned units in China, the Journal said.
A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman avoided a question about Dimon’s remarks during a Wednesday news conference, the Journal reported.
Shen Yi, a lecturer at Fudan University who has more than 1.5 million followers on China’s Twitter-like social-media platform Weibo, posted, "This guy is really quite arrogant."
Bloomberg said Shen later added: "Looks like JPMorgan doesn’t want its newly acquired license."
Bloomberg said Hu Xijin, editor-in-chief of the Communist Party’s Global Times newspaper, posted on his Weibo account: "I bet the Chinese Communist Party will outlast the United States of America."
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