7 ms·

Which US companies has China forced to divest their holdings?

brigadier132 3y ago
To operate in China you need to partner with local businesses and give up 50% of the local business. Also many American businesses are simply banned and were effectively forced to divest to recover funds.
kelnos 3y ago
Probably none, or very few, but the reason for that is China doesn't allow local companies to be majority-owned by foreign entities in the first place. Another, somewhat equivalent answer to your question is, "all of them".
- wnevets 3y ago
  doesn't that mean any company that does business in China should share the same security concerns if not worse than TikTok? I would be much more concerned about hardware that is being made and/or assembled by Chinse companies in China that a smartphone app
  - ThunderSizzle 3y ago
    Bingo. The anti-Tiktok focus might be more about the fact the CIA and FBI don't have control like they do with Facebook or YouTube. Notice they also want to shut down X since Musk bought it probably for a similar reason.
seanmcdirmid 3y ago
Almost all of them? Microsoft had to divest its Chinese cloud to a Shanghai water utility company (they do sewers, water reclamation and Microsoft Azure cloud!). All the auto companies that setup in China had to do it as 49/51 JVs so Chinese companies could learn lots of "how to make auto" IP, well, Tesla is the first one that was allowed to come in whole.
- nearbuy 3y ago
  > Microsoft had to divest its Chinese cloud to a Shanghai water utility company (they do sewers, water reclamation and Microsoft Azure cloud!) Odd mix. Do you have a source for this?
  - seanmcdirmid 3y ago
    Well, I was working for Microsoft in China at the time. Here is an article about it at the time: https://www.wired.com/2012/11/azure-goes-to-china/ https://www.wired.com/2012/11/azure-goes-to-china/ It gets a bit confusing: https://learn.microsoft.com/bs-latn-ba/azure/china/overview-operations https://learn.microsoft.com/bs-latn-ba/azure/china/overview-... So from what I heard at the time was that this was spinning out of a Shanghai water utility, but ownership gets mixed up a bit, Shanghai blue cloud is owned by Beijing based 21vianet, but I’m pretty sure there was some deal that involved the Shanghai municipal government. Ah here we go: https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/21vianet-teams-with-microsoft-for-shanghai-based-cloud-offering/ https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/21vianet-teams-wi...
- SturgeonsLaw 3y ago
  A sewerage company sounds perfectly qualified to operate modern internet infrastructure, they deal with much the same material
junon 3y ago
Literally almost all of them.
IncreasePosts 3y ago
You literally can't open a business in China as a foreigner without giving a large percentage ownership to a Chinese citizen or forming a joint venture with a local Chinese company. So that is basically forced divestment upon business creation.

To operate in China you need to partner with local businesses and give up 50% of the local business. Also many American businesses are simply banned and were effectively forced to divest to recover funds.

kelnos 3y ago

Probably none, or very few, but the reason for that is China doesn't allow local companies to be majority-owned by foreign entities in the first place. Another, somewhat equivalent answer to your question is, "all of them".

wnevets 3y ago
doesn't that mean any company that does business in China should share the same security concerns if not worse than TikTok? I would be much more concerned about hardware that is being made and/or assembled by Chinse companies in China that a smartphone app
- ThunderSizzle 3y ago
  Bingo. The anti-Tiktok focus might be more about the fact the CIA and FBI don't have control like they do with Facebook or YouTube. Notice they also want to shut down X since Musk bought it probably for a similar reason.

seanmcdirmid 3y ago

Almost all of them? Microsoft had to divest its Chinese cloud to a Shanghai water utility company (they do sewers, water reclamation and Microsoft Azure cloud!). All the auto companies that setup in China had to do it as 49/51 JVs so Chinese companies could learn lots of "how to make auto" IP, well, Tesla is the first one that was allowed to come in whole.

nearbuy 3y ago
> Microsoft had to divest its Chinese cloud to a Shanghai water utility company (they do sewers, water reclamation and Microsoft Azure cloud!) Odd mix. Do you have a source for this?
- seanmcdirmid 3y ago
  Well, I was working for Microsoft in China at the time. Here is an article about it at the time: https://www.wired.com/2012/11/azure-goes-to-china/ https://www.wired.com/2012/11/azure-goes-to-china/ It gets a bit confusing: https://learn.microsoft.com/bs-latn-ba/azure/china/overview-operations https://learn.microsoft.com/bs-latn-ba/azure/china/overview-... So from what I heard at the time was that this was spinning out of a Shanghai water utility, but ownership gets mixed up a bit, Shanghai blue cloud is owned by Beijing based 21vianet, but I’m pretty sure there was some deal that involved the Shanghai municipal government. Ah here we go: https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/21vianet-teams-with-microsoft-for-shanghai-based-cloud-offering/ https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/21vianet-teams-wi...
SturgeonsLaw 3y ago
A sewerage company sounds perfectly qualified to operate modern internet infrastructure, they deal with much the same material

junon 3y ago

Literally almost all of them.

IncreasePosts 3y ago

You literally can't open a business in China as a foreigner without giving a large percentage ownership to a Chinese citizen or forming a joint venture with a local Chinese company. So that is basically forced divestment upon business creation.