Deprived of privilege
"A decent salary, five-star hotels and high-profile meetings used to be standard configurations for employees at foreign firms. Now these perks are more common among deep-pocketed domestic enterprises," Carrie Wang, who works for a foreign-owned bank in Beijing, told the Global Times.
"The old belief that foreign companies are superior to domestic ones no longer stands true for Chinese fresh graduates. They are increasingly turning their heads to domestic e-commerce giants like Alibaba or Huawei," Wang said.
Foreign-owned human resources agency Manpower Employment found that Chinese people's evaluation of their career prospects with foreign companies had dropped by 41 percent over the past six years.
"This tendency has also extended to the consumption side as China sees a rise of young consumers who prefer to grab home-made products due to 'nationalism' or a 'sense of national pride,'" Wang said.
Daily People reported that the golden era for foreign companies traces back to 1994, when foreigners could take advantage of policies not offered to their Chinese rivals, including lower rate-paying and easier access to government services.
But the new Enterprise Income Tax Law and Implementation Rules launched in 2008 stipulated that the tax rates for both domestic and foreign enterprises should be the same - 25 percent. Before that, foreign-owned companies were only subject to a 15-percent or 24-percent tax rate while domestic firms had to pay 33 percent.
"It is hard to completely attribute the plight of foreign-owned firms in China to the phasing out of preferential policies for them," said Wang Jun, vice minister of consulting and research department of China Center for International Economic Exchanges.
"To end the 'super-national treatment' of foreign companies is reasonable. China is now advocating industrial upgrading and in the ever-changing environment domestic and foreign companies should compete equally," he told the Global Times.
Follow government's call
On some levels, foreign companies have long understood the importance of respecting China's policies and some even responded to the Chinese government's call more actively than domestic competitors.
By the end of 2016, 70 percent of foreign companies in China had established Party organizations, higher than the 67.9 percent in Chinese private companies, according to figures released by the Organization Department of the Communist Party of China.
According to news portal caixin.com, China's higher demands on the cyber environment also aroused concern among some foreign companies operating in China.
The general counsel of a transnational company in China told caixin.com that supervision over cyber data would to some extent influence their business lines, especially in the internet sector, but that they would find a way to deal with it.
For Chinese employees in those foreign companies, changes are happening. Fiona, who is working for one of the Big Four accountancy firms, is now focusing her time on taking the Chinese CPA (Certified Public Accountant) examination.
Her new boss, a Chinese, attaches more importance to a domestic CPA certificate than the international equivalent, in order to better serve their domestic customers. The boss's reward for employees who successfully pass CPA includes a 5-day holiday.
For Tara who works at a British law firm in Beijing, she also changed her work focus. The firm used to only serve large enterprises or State-owned banks.
But now, as some large-scale foreign enterprises withdraw from the Chinese market, the company is offering IPO application services for small- and medium-sized private enterprises in order to better survive in the ever-changing environment.
