Risks, Rewards, and Results: U.S. Companies in China and Chinese Companies in the United States - Intellectual Property Theft, Technology Transfer, Production Outsourcing, Investments and Capital Flow

This important report compilation contains the testimony of six renowned experts at a hearing in February 2019. This hearing evaluated two sets of relationships. In the first panel, hearing witnesses reviewed Chinese companies' participation in the U.S. economy, and in the second panel, hearing witnesses reviewed U.S. companies' participation in the Chinese economy. Both panels assessed implications of this participation for U.S. businesses, workers, consumers, and investors.

This compilation includes a reproduction of the 2019 Worldwide Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community.

Panel I: Chinese Companies in the United States: Reshaping the U.S. Competitive Landscape? * 1. Elizabeth Drake, Partner, Schagrin Associates * 2. Paul Gillis, Ph. D., Professor of Practice, Peking University Guanghua School of Management * 3. William Kirby, Ph. D., Spangler Family Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School * Panel II: U.S. Companies in China: How Much Pain, How Much Gain? * 4. Scott Kennedy, Ph. D. Director, Project on Chinese Business and Political Economy, Center for Strategic and International Studies * 5. Mary Lovely, Ph. D., Professor of Economics, Syracuse University Maxwell School of Public Policy * 6. Mark Wu, Henry L. Stimson Professor of Law, Harvard Law School

Excerpts: Over the years that this commission has been in existence, the ability to really find out what is happening to our companies operating in China in a specific and granular basis has been difficult, if not impossible, to ascertain. The issue of what is happening to and what the activities of U.S. companies operating in China are is of paramount interest, especially as negotiations between our two countries on trade issues appear to be near an end. Focus has been on intellectual property theft and the coercive activities of the Chinese government and its companies to force technology transfer as a condition of doing business there. But there is also attention to gaining greater access for U.S. investments into the Chinese market. That has been identified as a priority. But a deeper examination of the desirability of focusing on that is, in my view, merited. Is greater investment by our companies in China in our companies' interests and is it in the interests of our domestic producers and employees? Is it in the interests of our nation, as China has sought to advance its own interests by any means possible, legal and illegal? Do we really want our companies to move more of their operations to China? With 46 percent of China's exports emanating from foreign-invested enterprises, U.S. and otherwise, and 60 percent of the exports targeted at the U.S. market emanating from those enterprises, will more of our investments there simply fuel more outsourcing of production and offshoring of jobs and more imports here?

Today China is the world's second largest economy, the world's leading exporter, yet perceptions of risk and reward for the global private sector remain largely unchanged. The Australian Chamber of Commerce reported last year that more than two-thirds of their companies find it difficult to do business in China, yet remain committed because of the rise of the middle class.

When China joined the WTO, it was the sixth largest economy in terms of nominal GDP. American companies were attracted to the large and rapidly growing market in spite of concerns about restrictions on investment opportunities, a lack of regulatory transparency and inconsistent enforcement of rules and law. Today China is the world's second largest economy and the world's leading exporter yet perceptions of both risk and reward for the global private sector remain largely unchanged.