More foreign companies are feeling unwelcome in China, survey finds

More foreign firms are feeling unwelcome in China, the American Chamber of Commerce in China said as it released the results of a survey about the business climate in the world’s second-largest economy.

The lobbying group said Tuesday that 60% of 163 respondents to its poll said they feel less welcome in China than before. That is up from 41% in a survey released late last year.

Nearly half of the respondents also believe that foreign companies are being singled out in recent government campaigns investigating pricing practices and corruption, up from 40% in the 2013 survey.

A number of foreign companies have recently found themselves in the cross hairs as China steps up enforcement of its anti-monopoly law, enacted in 2008.

Businesses including Audi, Qualcomm Inc. and drug makers have been targeted in probes. Regulators opened an anti-monopoly investigation into Microsoft Corp. in July, with authorities arriving at four of the software giant’s offices unannounced.

In August, Chinese regulators found a dozen Japanese auto parts makers guilty of price fixing and slapped them with the highest antitrust fines since the law went into effect six years ago.

The American chamber isn’t the only group raising concerns about the climate for foreign firms in China these days. Recently, the business lobby’s European equivalent said that Chinese authorities have been abusing their power through intimidation tactics in prosecuting antitrust cases.

American chamber members reported “growing perceptions that multinational companies are under selective and subjective enforcement by Chinese government agencies,” Chairman Greg Gilligan said in the report released Tuesday.

The survey also addressed a number of specific issues. Respondents voiced concern over issues including the difficulty in obtaining necessary licenses, the lack of intellectual property protections, visa difficulties for foreign staff and data security issues.

“Licensing is perceived as an unfair competitive tool against foreign companies,” the chamber said. “Fewer respondents than ever believe that licenses are granted equally between foreign and Chinese companies.”

Chinese regulators said complaints that a disproportionate share of the antitrust investigations are directed against overseas companies are “groundless and baseless.”

In an interview published Tuesday in the state-run newspaper China Daily, Xu Kunlin, head of the National Reform and Development Commission, said many domestic companies have also been under investigation. The commission is China’s top economic planning body.

“As a law enforcement agency, we treat local and overseas companies equally to ensure justice for all,” he said.

Silbert is a special correspondent.