China’s SOE executives defend Beijing’s economic model from ‘targeted attacks’ by US, EU

China’s state-owned enterprises have “become a target of the attack” from western lobbying groups, according to an executive from a Beijing-backed construction company, with the firms often a source of unfair competition complaints from the likes of the United States and the European Union.

Chen Zhong, the general manager of the overseas department of the China Communication Construction Company, urged delegates at a government-sponsored event to woo foreign investment in Shandong over the weekend to “collect more samples and conduct more analysis” to obtain “fair conclusions” about the firms China’s sees as the backbone of the national economy.

“I have been working for 20 years [in the state economy sector], the state has never given us money for support, or offered us any special treatment,” Chen told the inaugural Qingdao Multinational Summit on Saturday.

Chen added that the success of the company, now the third-largest international contractor in the world by business turnover, was achieved through “the sweat and blood of our 140,000 employees.”

He was responding to criticism from American and European delegates who had argued that China must reduce the role of its state-owned enterprises as they create an uneven play field for private and foreign competitors, which they feel is not in line with the spirit of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

“It is not fair, private Chinese companies cannot compete, foreign companies cannot compete,” said Craig Allen, the president of the US-China Business Council. “Foreign companies want to compete, and our WTO agreement gives us the right to compete.”