BEIJING: European companies complain they still face a difficult business climate in China despite Beijing’s pledges of openness, with about half saying it has become tougher in the past year, according to a survey released Wednesday.
The study comes as President Xi Jinping looks to portray the world’s number two as being at the forefront of the globalization while trade tensions with the United States rise.
“The root of the tension we see today starts with a China that has not opened up and reformed as quickly as it promised in its rhetoric,” said Mats Harborn, president of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China.
Among the litany of complaints for European companies were the uncertain legal environment, higher cost of labor, regulatory headaches and the “Great Firewall” that censors much of the global Internet.
“As its economy matures, the longstanding inefficiencies in China’s business environment are rendered all the more glaring,” according to the report by the EU chamber.
Harborn told reporters that the “regulatory environment is actually holding the economy back.”
“Time is running out for China to continue its reform process,” Harborn said, noting 2018 must be the year Beijing acts.
Instead Beijing has backtracked in some areas. New cybersecurity regulations make it more costly to jump the firewall, requiring businesses to sign up for expensive and problem-plagued government-approved virtual private networks that allow users to circumvent filters and access the global Internet.
Two-thirds of companies believe that censorship and blocking of certain sites has a negative impact on their business, while only 23 percent say the state-sanctioned VPNs are efficient.
