The Economist states:
He argued that China is increasingly hostile to foreign multinationals; he also gave warning that his company, the world's biggest manufacturer, is actively looking for better prospects in other emerging markets. "They don't all want to be colonised by the Chinese", he said, going rather further than was prudent. "They want to develop themselves".
Mr Immelt's broadside was undoubtedly significant. It reflects a growing mood of disillusionment with China among big Western companies. It came from the mouth of one of China's biggest boosters, a man who praised the Chinese leadership, only last December, for doing exactly what they say they will.
Is Mr Immelt right about the changing mood in China? The Chinese are certainly unusually self-confident at the moment, thanks to the financial meltdown. They have flexed their muscles against a succession of companies, including Rio Tinto and Google.
The Economist referred to a Financial Times article where Immelt is to have said:
Jeffrey Immelt, General Electric’s chief executive, has launched a rare broadside against the Chinese government, which he accused of being increasingly hostile to foreign multinationals.
He warned that the world’s largest manufacturing company was exploring better prospects elsewhere in resource-rich countries, which did not want to be “colonised” by Chinese investors. “I really worry about China,” Mr Immelt told an audience of top Italian executives in Rome, accusing the Chinese government of becoming increasingly protectionist. “I am not sure that in the end they want any of us to win, or any of us to be successful.”
That was on July 2. The next day, July 3, China Daily states:
General Electric's chief executive Jeffrey Immelt, in spite realizing the importance of China's market, has reportedly criticized the Chinese government for being increasingly hostile toward multinationals. It seems that Mr Immelt is more than willing to lend his voice to a rising chorus of foreign complainants against China's business environment.
Given the huge difficulties and high pressure that business leaders face today, because of the global economic crisis, it is understandable for some of them to occasionally put the blame on others for their predicament. But biting the hand that feeds you is by no means the right way to ease pressure. While GE's global revenue shrunk in 2009 because of the global economic crisis, China contribution to it went up by 14 percent to $5.3 billion.
If the world's largest manufacturing company still has so much to complain about China, which has led the world recovery, it is hard to understand what it really expects from the Chinese authorities.
The company's business has expanded well in the world's fastest-growing major economy over the past two and half decades. It may be true that GE is facing its toughest business conditions in China, hit hard by the global recession last year with workers becoming the worst sufferers.
Immelt is also quoted in the Financial Times critical of the current Administration. They state:
Mr Immelt also had harsh words for Barack Obama, US president, lamenting what he called a “terrible” national mood and expressing concern that over-regulation in response to the global financial crisis would damp a “tepid” US economic recovery. Business did not like the US president, and the president did not like business, he said, making a point of praising Angela Merkel, Germany’s chancellor, for her defence of German industry.
“People are in a really bad mood [in the US],” Mr Immelt said. “We [the US] are a pathetic exporter...we have to become an industrial powerhouse again but you don’t do this when government and entrepreneurs are not in synch.”
It appears as if the Comcast deal will finally be completed.
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