Chinese companies in the US are repatriating profits as trade tensions rise, survey shows
A business environment ‘increasingly strewn with fresh challenges’ is frustrating Chinese firms in the US, according to the 2018 business survey by the China General Chamber of Commerce - USA
More Chinese companies in the US are transferring their profits back home as tensions between Washington and Beijing escalate to the threshold of an all-out trade war, according to a recent survey by a non-profit organisation representing Chinese enterprises in America.
Citing the probability of higher tariff walls and more rigorous government reviews of investments, Chinese companies operating in the US are frustrated about a business environment “increasingly strewn with fresh challenges”, according to the results of the 2018 business survey by the China General Chamber of Commerce - USA.
For example, 75 per cent of the business association’s members – mostly Chinese companies including Fosun International, PetroChina and embattled telecommunications equipment maker ZTE – said they reinvest all or “a majority” of their profits in the US, down from 87 per cent in the 2017 poll.
Twenty-two per cent said this year that all or most of their profits go back to China, up from nine per cent in 2017.
“The current administration has employed a new level of scrutiny and gamesmanship to” national security reviews conducted by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), the survey report said.