Foreign CEOs, too, have come under pressure to give the party a larger role in their firms. Again, this is a trend that began before Xi. Walmart, which famously wont allow unions in its US stores, has had party cells in its companies in China since at least 2006, and party-controlled unions even earlier. Under Xi, however, emboldened officials have pushed foreign firms harder to accommodate the party and give its representatives a role in business decisions.
Now a wide range of foreign companies in China, from the cosmetics giant LOral to Walt Disney and Dow Chemicals, all have party committees and display the hammer and sickle on their premises. In 2017, Reuters published an article that quoted executives from one European company saying that party representatives had demanded to be brought into the executive committee and have the business pay their expenses. Like Chinese entrepreneurs, foreign businessmen and women are trying to outrun the bear, not always with success.
But the partys persistent efforts to colonise the private sector have stoked a backlash of their own. In late 2017, the EU business chamber in China formally complained about party organisations trying to extend their influence in their member companies, something they said would undermine the authority of their boards.
Yet the chambers argument was met with indifference in China, at least in public utterances. When you are in Rome, do as the Romans do, said Chen Fengying, an expert at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, a foreign policy thinktank. Foreign investors should respect local rules and regulations in China.