According to Securities Times Online, Hainan Province recently introduced a Three-Year-Plan (from 2018 to 2020) to improve the Hainan Tourist Business using international standards. The goal is to increase foreign tourism by 25 percent and reach over two million tourists by 2020. The Plan would also create a special Internet zone for foreign tourists in cities like Haikou and Sanya and allow them to use social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

The news caused anger among Internet users in China. They criticized the Plan because it discriminates against Chinese citizens and uses a double standard to treat Chinese citizens as second class citizens. The link to the Plan can no longer be found on the official website of Hainan Province (http://www.hainan.gov.cn) and an article that the Paper.com published on this topic was also disabled. According to an article that Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported, the Plan will advertise Hainan tourism using WhatsApp and Wechat. It will also produce a Hainan tourism TV program to be aired on the BBC, CNN, and CNBC with over 2,000 minutes of air time.

The full article on the Plan can be found on WordPress.com: https://wo3ttt.wordpress.com/2018/06/23/%E6%B5%B7%E5%8D%97%E6%8B%9F%E5%AF%B9%E5%A4%96%E5%9B%BD%E6%B8%B8%E5%AE%A2%E5%BC%80%E6%94%BE%E4%BA%92%E8%81%94%E7%BD%91-%E7%BD%91%E7%BB%9C%E7%82%B8%E9%94%85-%E6%B6%88%E6%81%AF%E8%A2%AB%E5%88%A0/

Sources:
1. Security Times Online, June 22, 2018
http://kuaixun.stcn.com/2018/0622/14336897.shtmlto

2. RFA, June 22, 2018
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/meiti/hj-06222018105712.html

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

On June 15, the China Securities Regulatory Commission published a revision to the existing “Corporate Governance of Public Traded Companies” and solicited public opinion to be submitted for a period of one month. Described as “important content on the Corporate Governance for companies with Chinese Characteristics,” the revised governance required that publicly traded companies “strengthen the efforts to develop the party” and include the requirement that relevant party development work be included in the company’s articles of incorporation. According to a Financial Times report, over 30 State Owned Companies worth a total of US$1.15 trillion revised their corporate article last year to “place the Party at the central position of the company.” A Voice of America (VOA) article reported that, shortly after China’s accession to the WTO in 2001, the Communist Party’s control was formally introduced into the private sector. The official China Daily reported last year that nearly 70% of China’s approximately 1.86 million private companies have party organizations. In the past decade, party branches have been established in more and more foreign companies in China. The VOA article further quoted the comments from two Chinese scholars who stated that Chinese leaders don’t have a clear idea of where China’s economy is headed. On the one hand, Xi Jinping wants to promote the ideology from Mao’s era and let the party lead everything; on the other hand he wants to maintain China’s current economic status with the hope that state-owned enterprises will become bigger and stronger. The private sector, the most vigorous component of China’s economy, is gradually dying. Many private companies have been transferring their assets overseas but some of the top names like Wang Jianling, Guo Guangchang, Xiao Jianhua and Wang Xiaohui ended up being arrested and their money was confiscated. Therefore, according to one economist that the VOA quoted, “party development” work will not improve the financial challenges that SOEs face; nor will it become a “protection umbrella” for private business owners.

Source:
1. Voice of America, June 15, 2018
https://www.voachinese.com/a/china-strengthens-party-building-in-listed-companies-20180615/4441645.html
2. China Securities Regulatory Commission, June 15, 2018
http://www.csrc.gov.cn/pub/newsite/zjhxwfb/xwdd/201806/t20180615_339947.html