This is from a NYPost article, so you have to take it with a grain of salt. But I think it shows the political reality Microsoft is operating in, both in China and in the US. In the end, I think Microsoft will have no other choice than to leave China:
"China’s government has positioned itself to embed “Communist Party spies” at Microsoft and other US companies that do business in the country — and further expose them to theft of trade secrets, employee poaching and even scary intimidation tactics, The Post has learned.
A new version of Beijing’s “company law” that took effect July 1 — a clampdown that has seen scant coverage in the Western press, according to experts — requires multinational firms with more than 300 workers in the country to appoint an “employee representative” to their China affiliate’s board of directors.
Sources tell The Post that the “representatives” are almost certain to be in regular contact with Chinese authorities — if not outright members of the Chinese Communist Party. That, in turn, would give Beijing a direct line into the sensitive internal workings of American firms.
(...)
While China’s corporate law overhaul applies to many companies, Microsoft has been in the spotlight — not only because it has more than 10,000 employees working there, but because its software is deeply embedded in America’s critical infrastructure.
Last year, a China-based group brazenly hacked the Microsoft email accounts of Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and several other US officials.
Microsoft, which declined to comment for this article, has expanded operations in China even as other Big Tech firms like Google and Meta have dialed down their presence in the region. The company has sought to downplay China-related security concerns.
When asked by Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-Fla.) in June if the company follows a 2017 law requiring companies to cooperate with the CCP’s intelligence services, Microsoft executive Brad Smith said no — and hinted that the company was somehow exempt.
“There are two types of countries in the world. Those that apply every law they enact, and those who enact certain laws but don’t always apply them. And in this context, China, and that law, is in the second category,” Smith said.
Gimenez was unconvinced by Smith’s explanation — and told The Post that he is particularly concerned about China’s revised company law.
“Sooner rather than later, all of these corporations are going to find that they’re going to be absorbed into the CCP and into China,” Gimenez said. “The sooner they start to extricate themselves from China, the better they’re going to be, but also the better America is going to be.”
This is from a NYPost article, so you have to take it with a grain of salt. But I think it shows the political reality Microsoft is operating in, both in China and in the US. In the end, I think Microsoft will have no other choice than to leave China:
"China’s government has positioned itself to embed “Communist Party spies” at Microsoft and other US companies that do business in the country — and further expose them to theft of trade secrets, employee poaching and even scary intimidation tactics, The Post has learned.
A new version of Beijing’s “company law” that took effect July 1 — a clampdown that has seen scant coverage in the Western press, according to experts — requires multinational firms with more than 300 workers in the country to appoint an “employee representative” to their China affiliate’s board of directors.
Sources tell The Post that the “representatives” are almost certain to be in regular contact with Chinese authorities — if not outright members of the Chinese Communist Party. That, in turn, would give Beijing a direct line into the sensitive internal workings of American firms.
(...)
While China’s corporate law overhaul applies to many companies, Microsoft has been in the spotlight — not only because it has more than 10,000 employees working there, but because its software is deeply embedded in America’s critical infrastructure.
Last year, a China-based group brazenly hacked the Microsoft email accounts of Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and several other US officials.
Microsoft, which declined to comment for this article, has expanded operations in China even as other Big Tech firms like Google and Meta have dialed down their presence in the region. The company has sought to downplay China-related security concerns.
When asked by Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-Fla.) in June if the company follows a 2017 law requiring companies to cooperate with the CCP’s intelligence services, Microsoft executive Brad Smith said no — and hinted that the company was somehow exempt.
“There are two types of countries in the world. Those that apply every law they enact, and those who enact certain laws but don’t always apply them. And in this context, China, and that law, is in the second category,” Smith said.
Gimenez was unconvinced by Smith’s explanation — and told The Post that he is particularly concerned about China’s revised company law.
“Sooner rather than later, all of these corporations are going to find that they’re going to be absorbed into the CCP and into China,” Gimenez said. “The sooner they start to extricate themselves from China, the better they’re going to be, but also the better America is going to be.”
https://nypost.com/2024/09/09/business/china-poised-to-embed-communist-party-spies-inside-us-firms-including-microsoft-critics-warn/