US businesses optimistic on China growth, bemoan unfair treatment

BEIJING: US companies are more confident China will further open up to foreign investment in coming years, a top business lobby said yesterday, but it cautioned that an ‘ astounding’ three- quarters of its members do not feel welcomed by the Chinese government.

The American Chamber of Commerce in China also said in a report on its annual membership survey “even- handed enforcement of laws and regulations regardless of shareholder nationality” and an open investment environment were needed to reduce trade frictions between China and the United States.

“After several years of contraction, more companies are expanding investment, yet the growth in investment will remain much slower than historical levels,” the chamber said.

The outlook on sustainable economic growth in China was ‘ generally positive’, with 46 per cent of respondents expressing confidence that the government would further open China’s market to foreign investment within the next three years, up from 34 per cent in the previous survey, it said.

But the chamber noted that its survey, filled out during October and November by 411 of the 849 members to whom it was sent, did not include ‘ countless’ companies because they are excluded from China’s market by government regulations.

It cautioned that US President Donald Trump’s visit to China in November might account for a jump in perceptions that USChina relations would improve in the year ahead – 36 per cent compared with 17 per cent in the previous year’s survey.

Trump has taken a hard line on China since that visit, which yielded no major outcomes on trade disputes, saying that he was considering major action against Beijing for alleged theft of intellectual property.

His administration has said the United States mistakenly supported China’s membership in the World Trade Organization in 2001 on terms that had failed to force Beijing to open its economy. — Reuters