Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao will arrive in Washington this week with a message for American companies: China is open for business and warmly welcomes American investment.
China’s commerce minister to visit United States, promote investment
But his trip — and his message — could hardly come at a more challenging time: Even as the two sides signal interest in rekindling diplomatic ties, relations remain at a low point, and a partisan Washington is united by animosity toward the Chinese Communist Party.
And American businesses are growing increasingly alarmed about a new Chinese espionage law that, in the words of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, risks “undermining China’s stated policy of openness and desire to attract new foreign investment and exports” from the United States.
“A day doesn’t go by without some news about how the U.S. and China are constantly in a state of needling one another over the issue of the day,” said James Zimmerman, a partner in the Beijing office of Perkins Coie LLP and former chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in China. “In the ever-changing current environment, businesses on the ground in China are constantly revising their strategic plans, tearing them up and starting over again.”
Foreign businesses in China have watched with alarm in recent weeks as authorities have ramped up scrutiny of foreign firms, conducted raids on due-diligence companies Mintz Group and Bain & Co., and investigated international consultancy Capvision citing national security reasons.
The raids coincided with a sweeping overhaul