Slightly less than half of European companies operating in China plan to expand their mainland-based workforce in the next year—down from 61 percent in 2012, according to a recent survey by the European Chamber of Commerce. A quarter of these entities are looking for other ways to trim costs in China, and 51 percent believe doing business in China “has become more difficult” over the past few years.
Business isn’t typically bad—61 percent said their China operations were profitable—but it’s less spectacular than in past years. That’s due in part to China’s economic slowdown, in part to real and perceived hostility against foreign companies in China, and in part to problems or layoffs in their home offices.
American companies expressed similar concerns in a recent survey by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Fully 60 percent of U.S. businesses said they felt “less welcome” in China than in the previous year. Anticorruption and pricing probes in wide-ranging industries have seemingly singled out foreign companies, from Microsoft (MSFT) to Abbott Laboratories (ABT), as targets. Almost half of those surveyed said they thought the pattern of harassment was deliberate.
via Frustrated Multinationals Look to Trim China-Based Staff – Businessweek.
CHINDIA ALERT: You'll be living in their world, very soon 