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Survey Found Close to 50 Percent of European Companies with Operations in China Feel Business Environment Is Getting Worse

Voice of America (VOA) reported on the results of a survey conducted on 532 European companies that are members of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China. The survey found that European companies with operations in China are dealing with a difficult business environment. Close to 50 percent of the companies that took the survey said that the environment has gotten worse in the past year; 20 percent of the companies said that they were the victim of forced technology transfer; close to 50 percent of the companies believed that the trade barriers in China will get worse over the next five years; and 25 percent of the companies believed that they would never see China’s market “open in any significant way.” The areas that these companies complained about the most include the uncertain legal environment, higher labor costs, and regulatory problems, as well as the “Great Firewall.” According to the article, some companies felt that China didn’t make progress in certain areas but rather it had taken a step backward. The examples were the introduction of the new Internet Security Law which forced these companies to spend more money on company registration fees, as well as using a low efficiency VPN system. The VOA article quoted a statement that the President of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China made. He said that the trade tension between China and the U.S. resulted from China because it is not fully open and hasn’t carry out the speedy reform that it had promised. … China claims that it is the leader in globalization but its Internet Security Law is creating problems for these foreign companies.

Source: Voice of America, June 20, 2018
https://www.voachinese.com/a/news-eu-chamber-of-commerce-on-china-20180620/4446674.html