“Protect intellectual property”
Xi attracts foreign companies with transparency offensive
November 28, 2023, 1:31 p.m
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China is a huge market and interesting for numerous Western companies. There are always concerns about the possible theft of ideas. President Xi is now trying to eliminate this and is ordering his country to have more transparency and better protection of property rights.
According to state media, Chinese President Xi Jinping has instructed his country to better protect the rights and intellectual property of international companies. As state television broadcaster CCTV reported, Xi told a meeting of the Communist Party’s Politburo that China must ensure “comprehensive, open and transparent” legal treatment of foreign companies. The Politburo is the most powerful decision-making body in the state.
The Chinese legal system should “strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights” and “ensure the legitimate rights and interests of foreign companies,” Xi said. Beijing must create a “market-oriented, legally secure and internationally first-class business environment”.
European and US companies in China regularly complain about business conditions in the country, which are strained by geopolitical tensions between Washington and Beijing, an anti-espionage law, police raids on multinational corporations and preferential treatment for Chinese competitors. However, in view of a weakening economy, there are signs from Beijing that China wants to lure foreign companies back to the country.
At the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in San Francisco in November, Xi invited international corporations to invest in China and promised “heartwarming” measures “to make it easier for foreign companies to invest and operate in China.”