Caution: China draws a red line on foreign companies

China is flexing its political muscles on foreign companies, to yield to its political agenda. Last week, Chinese police made a surprise visit to US consulting firm Bain & Co’s Shanghai office.

A cyber security review was launched on chip maker Micron Technology Inc. An employee of Japanese Astellas Pharma was detained.

Another US company, Mintz Group’s Beijing office was raided, and five employees were detained. Police took away computers and phones.

US and China
The relations between Washington and Beijing have deteriorated in recent months.

Tensions heightened after a trade war between the US and China in 2018. In February 2023, relations were further frayed after the US shot down an alleged Chinese spy balloon.

Earlier this month, Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen's meeting with US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy also angered China.

Last month, TikTok chief executive Shou Zi Chew was grilled by US lawmakers about the app's data security and privacy practices.

“The Chinese government has said it welcomes foreign investment. However, a flurry of recent actions taken against US enterprises in China has sent the opposite message,” Michael Hart, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in China told the BBC.

Not only US
A survey published in August 2022 by Berlin-based Merics think tank for China studies and the BDI industry association on more than 100 companies found that the number of cases rose considerably in the last five years.

German carmaker Daimler had to apologize several times to China because one of its ads had a quote from China’s Tibetan rival, Dalai Lama.

Western textile firms are criticized in Chinese media, in response to the Western criticism of the human rights violations against the Muslim minorities in the Uighur province of China.