中國新一輪逮捕使到外國公司緊張，對富士康展開調查(2/2)

Recently Yahoo News on-line reported the following:

China Rattles Foreign Firms with New Arrests, Foxconn Probe (2/2)

Bloomberg News

Tue, October 24, 2023 at 2:46 a.m. GMT+8

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Foxconn billionaire founder Terry Gou resigned from the company’s board last month as he campaigns to become president of Taiwan. The campaign referred questions to Foxconn. He previously dismissed claims he would be susceptible to Chinese pressure, were he to win January’s election.

“I will not bow to China’s threats,” Gou said at the August briefing announcing his presidential bid. Name-checking key customers including Apple, Tesla and Amazon.com Inc., he said any halt to production due to political pressure would disrupt supply chains — something China would need to explain to the world.

Xiaomeng Lu, director of Geo-Technology at Eurasia Group, said the probe may be China’s way of seeking influence in the Taiwanese election, where the island’s relationship with the mainland will be a central issue.

“I think Beijing definitely has an incentive to weigh in and have a chat with Terry Gou about this presidential race,” she said on Bloomberg Television.

To Teneo’s Wildau, the “crackdown is surprising because Gou has strong relationships with mainland leaders, and Foxconn has played an important role in establishing China as the world’s largest exporter and manufacturer”. However, “top leaders are probably unhappy that Gou is poised to play spoiler in Taiwan’s presidential campaign. The actions against Foxconn look like they’re intended to send a message to Gou that he should consider the broader political situation rather than indulging his own ambitions,” he added.

Lai Ching-te, Taiwan’s vice president and presidential election frontrunner, voiced support for Hon Hai at a campaign event Sunday.

“China shouldn’t force Taiwanese companies to declare their position whenever an election is taking place,” he said. “China should acknowledge Taiwanese companies contribute to its economy greatly.”

On Monday, Taiwanese Premier Chen Chien-jen told reporters in Taipei that the government has kept in touch with Hon Hai and will offer assistance depending on the situation.

The Foxconn probe likely contributed to the weakness in the Taiwan stock market and put pressure on the local currency, according to Khoon Goh, head of Asia research at Australia & New Zealand Banking Corp. The Taiwan dollar slid toward a seven-year low against the greenback.

Beijing has been intensifying its scrutiny of Western businesses amid growing geopolitical tensions. In March, authorities raided New York-based due diligence firm Mintz Group’s office in Beijing and detained five of its Chinese employees. In April, Bain & Co. confirmed that Chinese authorities had questioned staff at its Shanghai office.

The following month, Chinese state security officials visited a branch of Capvision, a consulting firm with headquarters in New York and Shanghai.

At a forum last week in Beijing, Takehiko Nakao, chairman of Mizuho Research & Technologies, said that arrests with no public clarity over the reasons have added to a sense of unease among international companies. Seventeen Japanese have been detained in China since May 2015, the country’s foreign ministry said in a September email.

“Japanese companies want to expand but are also somewhat cautious,” said Nakao, who previously ran the Asian Development Bank, adding that the caution was partly due to China’s detention of an executive without public explanation. “If there’s even one person like that, people become very worried.”

The Foxconn case, however, is unique in to Wildau. “The fact that Foxconn’s founder is running for president in Taiwan puts his company more squarely in the political spotlight than the typical multinational operating in China,” he said. “Moreover, the mainland leaders don’t consider Taiwan a foreign country, so they are likely more willing to use leverage over Foxconn to influence Taiwanese politics than they would for an unambiguously foreign company.”

--With assistance from Thomas Seal, Mark Bergen, Gao Yuan, Cindy Wang, Jasmine Ng, Wenjin Lv and Jacob Gu.

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富士康億萬富翁創辦人郭台銘上月因競選台灣總統而從公司董事會請辭。 競選活動把問題指向富士康。 他此前否認如果他贏得一月份的選舉，他將容易受到中國壓力的說法。

郭台銘在八月宣布競選總統的記者會上表示: 「我不會屈服於中國的威脅」。 他列舉了蘋果、特斯拉和亞馬遜等主要客戶的名字，表示任何因政治壓力而停產的行為都會擾亂供應鏈 - 中國是需要向世界解釋這一點。

歐亞集團地質技術總監 Xiaomeng Lu 表示，調查富士康可能是中國在台灣選舉中尋求影響力的一種方式，台灣與大陸的關係將成為這次選舉的核心議題。

她在彭博電視台上表示: 「我認為北京肯定有動力參與並與郭台銘相談這次總統競選」。

對Teneo’s Wildau來說，「這次打擊行動令人驚訝，因為郭台銘與大陸領導人關係密切，富士康在中國成為全球最大出口國和製造商的過程中發揮了重要作用」。 然而，他補充道: 「高層領導人可能對郭台銘準備在台灣總統競選中做搞事者感到不滿。 針對富士康的行動看起來是為了向郭台銘傳遞一個訊息，即他應該考慮更廣泛的政治局勢，而不是沉迷於自己的野心」。

台灣副總統、總統選舉領跑者賴清德在周日的競選活動中表達了對鴻海的支持。

他說:「中國不應該在選舉時強迫台灣企業表明立場」;「中國應該承認台灣企業對其經濟做出了巨大貢獻 」。

週一，台灣行政院院長陳建仁在台北告訴記者，政府一直與鴻海保持聯繫，並將根據情況提供協助。

澳洲和紐西蘭銀行亞洲研究主管 Khoon Goh 表示，富士康調查可能導致台灣股市疲軟，並對當地貨幣造成壓力。新台幣兌美元匯率跌至七年來的最低點。

在地緣政治緊張局勢日益加劇之際，北京方面一直在加強對西方企業的審查。 今年三月，當局突襲搜查了總部位於紐約的盡職調查公司Mintz Group在北京的辦公室，並拘留了其五名中國員工。 在4 月， Bain & Co 證實，中國當局對其上海辦事處的工作人員進行了詢問。

接下來的一個月，中國國家安全官員參觀了總部位於紐約和上海的顧問公司Capvision的一家分公司。

上週在北京舉行的一個論壇上，Mizuho Research & Technologies 董事長 Takehiko Nakao 表示，在沒有公開說明原因的情況下進行逮捕，加劇了國際公司的不安感。 中國外交部在 9 月的一封電子郵件中表示，自 2015 年 5 月以來，已有 17 名日本人在中國被拘留。

曾任亞洲開發銀行行長的 Nakao表示：「日本企業希望擴張，但也有些謹慎。」他補充說，這種謹慎的部分原因是中國在沒有公開解釋的情況下拘留了一名高階主管。 「即使有一單這樣的事，人們也會變得非常擔心」。

然而，對於Wildau來說富士康案是獨一無二的。 他說： “富士康創始人正在台灣競選總統，這一事實使他的公司比在中國經營的典型跨國公司更直接地處於政治焦點下” 。 “此外，大陸領導人並不認為台灣是外國，因此他們可能更願意利用富士康的影響力來影響台灣政治，而不是用一家徹头徹尾的外國公司。”

         So, China often does not publicly explain the actions taken by its regulators, leaving companies operating in the country to guess the ultimate goals of the government. China’s investigation into Foxconn Technology Group is shaking the confidence of foreign companies in the country. It is worth noting that the part of the leadership dealing with the economy and attracting foreign capital is not in the driving seat, and they can only watch and hope to minimize the damage by announcing the opening of certain sectors to appease investors. The fact that Terry Gou is running for president in Taiwan puts his company squarely in the political spotlight.