With Chinese leader Xi Jinping increasingly advocating the country’s unique state-led market economy as he cemented his power at the just-concluded key Communist Party congress, foreign businesses, including Japanese firms, may face further challenges in China, such as technology leakage fears.
Beijing’s stringent “zero-COVID” policy, its pursuit of greater self-reliance in the manufacturing sector amid rivalry with the United States and the promotion of “common prosperity” that could lead to coercively narrowing the income gap, have all contributed to increasing uncertainty in doing business with China, critics say.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (front row, 5th from L) raises his hand at the closing ceremony of the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Oct. 22, 2022. (Kyodo)
In a work report to the twice-a-decade congress, where Xi secured an…
