US moves against China firms criticized(2)

Ma Weihua, chairman of Wing Lung Bank and former chairman of China Merchants Bank, said most Chinese companies are not prepared to "go global", as shown in the high percentage of failures in ODI.

In 2010, more than 10 percent of Chinese outbound investments failed, one of the highest rates in the world. More than 20 percent had lost money, he said.

"Many Chinese companies do not have a clear strategy in terms of going abroad. Some just go abroad because they think they are big enough. And the low-price strategy they generally apply abroad could easily provoke local repulsion," Ma said.

Li, the banker, pointed out that Chinese executives abroad have very limited integration with local cultures: They tend to work and live in an isolated environment in foreign markets and seldom communicate with locals. They are particularly weak at language skills.

"Throughout my intensive travel experience in Africa, my personal feeling is that Chinese culture hardly resonates with these developing nations," he added.

Michael Andrew, global chairman of KPMG International, a global auditing corporation, said the firm's survey of Chinese clients showed that a few years ago, 86 percent of Chinese companies that had outbound investment were State-owned enterprises. Their investment was overwhelmingly concentrated in energy and infrastructure. But now more investors are targeting areas such as food, technology and services.