The Washington State China Relations Council hosted a roundtable with representatives from Amcham Shanghai on September 22nd at the WSCRC offices. The Amcham delegation, led by the Amcham President Eric Zheng, visited Seattle enroute to Washington, D.C. where they will meet with members of Congress and the Administration.
WSCRC Board Member Nelson Dong opened the meeting with an outline of the challenges facing U.S. businesses in China, with particular focus on China restricting legislation being debated in D.C., the limited people to people contacts caused by the tension between our two countries.
AmCham President Zheng then presented the results of Amcham Shanghai’s annual business survey which was released on the eve of his trip. The report was compiled from the survey responses of over three hundred senior business leaders of American companies operating in China. The key finding was that current friction between the U.S. and China and its impact on business is the number one concern of American companies. While market access, IP protection and the lack of transparency in China have traditionally been the key areas of concern of American business leaders, geo-political concerns now overshadow these issues.
Mr. Zheng also noted that while there is a trend of companies to increasingly invest in third countries as a hedge against potential China related supply chain problems, most Amcham member companies are still optimistic about growing their business in China.