'Big money for American firms'

A senior mainland envoy to the US has denied claims by former US ambassador to China James Sasser that most of the 28,000 American firms doing business on the mainland are losing money.

China's consul-general to Los Angeles, An Wenbin, told a Californian audience of businessmen on Thursday that Mr Sasser's claim was incorrect.

"Most American businesses in China are making big money," Mr An said, citing firms like AT&T, Motorola and McDonald's. Speaking at a Los Angeles breakfast meeting sponsored by the Hong Kong Association of Southern California, he said thousands of US firms in the mainland would have long pulled out if they were not profitable.

The controversy arose when Mr An took questions from members of the audience after his speech. One said he had learned from Mr Sasser, who left the post last year, that almost all US firms on the mainland were failing and wanted to know if this was true.

Mr An denied the claim but conceded some were unprofitable for reasons of their own making:

Choosing the wrong project, the wrong place to start up and making the wrong contacts;

Losing patience too quickly and leaving;

Failing to take timely advantage of business opportunities.

Earlier, he had advised businessmen that to succeed in the mainland they had to compete aggressively with the Japanese and Europeans. They also had to be patient in dealing with Chinese.

He said the mainland's opening up of new sectors would provide huge trade opportunities for US and other foreign firms, estimating that China would import US$1,500 billion (HK$11,600 billion) worth of technology and equipment in the next five years.

But he warned that political and artificial rather than commercial reasons were delaying a final vote in the US Senate granting Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) that would clear the way for China's entry into the World Trade Organisation.

"To use PNTR as a tool to exert pressure on China, or try to draw this issue into US domestic politics is wrong and dangerous. It has never been successful and it will never work," he said.