China exerting growing pressure on foreign companies, study finds

BERLIN (Reuters) – China is exerting growing strain on overseas firms doing enterprise in its markets to carry them into line with its political agenda, broadening the “pink strains” for points to which it’s allergic, a German examine seen by Reuters exhibits.

A survey of greater than 100 firms by the Berlin-based Merics suppose tank for China research and the BDI business affiliation confirmed that the threshhold for exerting strain on firms is falling. The variety of recognized instances rose considerably from 2018, it discovered.

“It was about recognizing a sample of when and the way China exerts strain,” co-author Max Zenglein stated.

The researchers stated that along with problems with nationwide sovereignty, stories on the emergence of COVID-19, sanctions in opposition to Chinese language firms like telecoms tools maker Huawei or help for events labeled as anti-Chinese language at the moment are seen as “new pink strains”.

In a single case, German carmaker Daimler apologised a number of instances to China in 2018 after operating promoting with a quote from the Dalai Lama.

China’s overseas ministry stated it may solely remark as soon as it had seen the total report.

China has persistently denied allegations that the COVID-19 virus was leaked from a specialist laboratory within the metropolis of Wuhan, the place it was first recognized on the finish of 2019.

Washington sees Huawei as an arm of the Chinese language Communist Social gathering’s international surveillance equipment, however Huawei has repeatedly denied spying for the Chinese language state.

Overseas shopper items firms particularly have been topic to boycotts in China, with Western textile corporations focused on social media in response to Western criticism of China’s therapy of the Uighur minority within the Xinjiang area.

“For worry of being focused, firms might keep away from addressing unfair therapy of overseas corporations in China. Or they might take into account it most secure to align themselves with the Chinese language authorities’s positions and targets,” the researchers wrote.

(Reporting by Andreas Rinke; Further reporting by Martin Quin Pollard in Beijing; Writing by Paul Carrel; Enhancing by Hugh Lawson)