News Brief
Beijing's Crackdown Against US Companies Operating In China Continues
Bain & Company's offices raided. (Representative image)
Chinese police went to Bain & Company's Shanghai office, quizzing its employees over increased scrutiny of foreign businesses in China amid rising tensions with the US, Financial Times reported.
Chinese police made a surprise visit two weeks ago and confiscated computers and phones from a team, however, no team members were detained, according to the report.
Police made multiple visits to offices in China's financial centre. This occurred after the Beijing office of Mintz Group was raided and five employees were detained by authorities in the previous month.
It's not known why the police visited Bain or if it was related to the consulting firm or any of its clients.
Chinese authorities have questioned Shanghai office staff, the company is co-operating with them, the report added.
Chinese executives are privately speculating about the incident since its occurrence, as per multiple sources from consulting firms and other companies.
The US companies, already worried about Beijing's retaliation against measures taken by the Joe Biden administration, are further concerned by the recent raid.
China's Internet regulator is investigating Micron Technology for national security reasons and has detained a senior executive from Astellas Pharma on espionage charges in the past few weeks.
Following deficiencies found in past audits, Chinese authorities have suspended Deloitte's operations in Beijing for three months and imposed a record fine on the Big Four accounting firm.
Meanwhile, the Chinese Commerce Ministry has prohibited Chinese groups from selling to US defence contractors Raytheon and Lockheed Martin, and banned several of their executives from entering the country.
Beijing is welcoming US businesses like Apple while potentially singling out others, causing concerns in Washington over China's selective approach.
Bain advises several Chinese companies ranging from Alibaba to Li Auto with more than 200 employees in China.
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