The Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) on Thursday urged foreign governments to fairly treat acquisition deals that involve Chinese companies, as the U.S. has increased scrutiny of deals that involve Chinese investments.
"We respect relevant countries' investigations of certain acquisition deals involving international parties in accordance with their laws," Shen Danyang, MOFCOM spokesman, told a press conference on Thursday. "[But we] hope these countries treat Chinese investments based on fair and just attitudes and transparent and nondiscriminatory principles."
Shen made the remarks in response to questions regarding increased scrutiny of Chinese investments in overseas markets, especially in the U.S.
Investments from China were the primary targets of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) reviews in 2014, with 24 notices filed involving Chinese investors, according to a CFIUS report to the U.S. Congress. The CFIUS reviews deals involving foreign investments for national security implications.
Acquisitions by Chinese investors accounted for the largest share of the notices filed between 2012 and 2014 with 68 notices, accounting for 19 percent of the total notices filed with the CFIUS during the period, the report said.
Shen said as more Chinese companies go abroad, politicians from some developed countries "always like to make carping comments about Chinese companies' normal investments."
He pointed out that a recent bid from China National Chemical Corp to take over seed giant Syngenta AG, which has sparked concerns among U.S. politicians, "couldn't be any more normal."
The proposed $43 billion takeover bid is still underway, and the MOFCOM is closely watching the development of the deal, according to Shen.
"China, indeed, has become a primary target of increased U.S. scrutiny in recent years," Jiang Yong, a research fellow at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, told the Global Times on Thursday.
Jiang said the trend is a strategic move by the U.S. to counter rising Chinese influence and is unfair to Chinese businesses.
"This is more of a political move than an economic one," Jiang said.
