Business sentiment regarding China-U.S. relations has taken a turn for the worse, according to a recent survey of American companies. © AP
SHANGHAI -- Foreign businesses in China say the safety of their personnel and family has become a "major concern" after a number of expatriates were detained recently, with Beijing's move to broaden its counterespionage law adding to their unease.
Business sentiment regarding China-U.S. relations has also worsened, while nearly a quarter of U.S. companies are or are preparing to shift away from Asia's largest economy, according to a recent survey by the American Chamber of Commerce in China.
"It is a major concern," Michael Hart, president of the chamber, said of the detentions, though he added that it is still rare for expatriates to be detained in China.
The growing alarm follows a report on Monday that Dong Yuyu, a former editor with Guangming Daily, has been charged with espionage after meeting with Japanese diplomats. Last month, a Japanese employee of drugmaker Astellas Pharma was detained for allegedly spying.
The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress of China is expected to pass an amendment to a security law on Wednesday with the aim of expanding the scope of anti-espionage activities beyond state secrets to include all data.
The breadth and ambiguity of the law have unnerved businesses.
"If you're going to make an investment in China, you want to have as much information as possible about your sector, about how competitors are producing and also about government policies," Hart said. "And so if foreign direct investment is a goal of the Chinese government, which it says it is, there is a need to be balanced. So, it is a concern for business folks because they ... don't want to be considered to be doing something nefarious when they're just trying to collect business intelligence."
The chamber on Wednesday said views among businesses on U.S.-China' relations have deteriorated despite an increase in cross-border trips after China ended its COVID restrictions late last year. In a business climate survey conducted on April 20, 87% of the 109 respondents expressed pessimism over the state of relations, up from 73% in a previous study based on data collected in October 2022 and February 2023.
Optimism regarding China's recovery from the pandemic grew to 59%, up from 22%, while 73% of the respondents said they were committed to doing business in the country. However, 23% said they were considering or in the midst of shifting some of their operations away from China, citing risk management, an uncertain policy environment and strategic re-prioritization of other countries. The figure was 24% in the previous study.
"The fact that Chinese manufacturers need to relocate outside China to sell in the U.S. means we are considering focusing our services outside China as well," one respondent was quoted as saying.
Growing tensions across the Taiwan Strait, including China's military drills earlier this month, also have upset European Union businesses in China. A majority said they are concerned over a possible blockade or war in Taiwan based on the impact they have suffered from the war in Ukraine.
"If Taiwan gets blocked, we don't have a Taiwan or China problem. We have a globalization problem," Jorg Wuttke, president of the European Chamber in China, told reporters on Tuesday, pointing to the fact that 90% of the world's advanced semiconductors come from the island, which Beijing claims as its own. Wuttke called for de-escalation and honoring the existing redlines, as "the ambiguity of Taiwan has served us very well over the years."
https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics/International-relations/US-China-tensions/Companies-unnerved-by-China-detentions-says-U.S.-business-group
No comments:
Post a Comment