European companies facing difficult business conditions in China

Hong Kong: A survey conducted on 532 European companies has found that their operations in China are facing a difficult business environment.

According to the Voice of America (VOA), the survey, which has been published by Chinascope, says that close to 50 per cent of the companies said the environment in China has gotten worse in the past year.

Twenty per cent said they were victims of forced technology transfer. Fifty per cent of the companies believed trade barriers in China will get worse over the next five years and 25 per cent believed they would never see China's market "open in any significant way."

Among the areas companies complained about were an uncertain legal environment, higher labour costs and regulatory problems, as well as the "Great Firewall." The article further said some companies felt China is not making progress in certain areas but rather taking 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 US 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.