China Tightens Control on Foreign Companies With Party Apparatus

Workers lined up to sing communist ‘red’ songs at an instant noodle factory, near a village in China’s central Henan Province on Sept. 29, 2017. Recently the Chinese Communist Party has further extended its control on companies with both private and foreign-owned, with party branches. Greg Baker/AFP/Getty Images

China is one of the world’s biggest markets, but don’t expect business as usual when it comes to how companies operate inside the country. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) permeates every aspect of society and is establishing itself inside foreign-owned, private companies.

In China, about 70 percent of foreign-funded companies, or 106,000 in number, have established Party branches, said Qi Yu, deputy head of the CCP’s Organization Department, at a news conference held on Oct. 19 at the Party’s important conclave, the 19th National Congress.