Chinese financial data providers have stopped providing key corporate information to overseas clients, underscoring the growing difficulty foreign firms face when trying to obtain information that Beijing might deem sensitive.
Wind Information Co (萬得資訊) has in the past few months stopped allowing customers using its platform outside mainland China from accessing its corporate registry database, multiple people familiar with the matter said.
The change is due to regulatory requirements, and other parts of its service are continuing as normal, they said, declining to be identified because the matter is sensitive.
Wind collects data on more than 200 million enterprises and 270 million legal representatives and executives, its Web site says.
It has information about company shareholders and affiliates, fundraising and investing activities, legal disputes and operation risks.
Registry databases at Qichacha (企查查) and TianYanCha (天眼查) — companies that provide similar services — have also been inaccessible for some time to users outside mainland China, several other people said.
More than 10 overseas users of Wind contacted by Bloomberg said they could still access other data from Wind apart from the corporate registry database and did not have problems renewing subscriptions to the service.
The Wall Street Journal over the weekend reported that some unidentified foreign firms, including think tanks and research firms, were unable to renew subscriptions to Wind over what the company described as “compliance” issues.
The restriction highlights the more difficult environment facing investors operating in China, despite Beijing’s push to improve ties globally. US consultancy firms are under the spotlight in particular, with authorities in recent weeks targeting the China offices of Bain & Co, Mintz Group and Capvision, media reports said.
The government last month passed a new counterespionage law that expanded the list of activities that could be considered spying, intensifying the risks for foreign firms.
The increasing pressure on foreign firms operating in China appears to run counter to Beijing’s efforts to improve diplomatic ties in the wake of the country’s reopening.
Chinese Premier Li Qiang (李強) in March vowed to establish a “broad space” for international companies to develop there. China has welcomed a host of leaders and business delegations, including from Germany and France.
Last month, China’s Politburo urged greater efforts at boosting foreign investment.
Global investors have turned more cautious on the country, despite improving economic fundamentals. The MSCI China Index is down about 17 percent from its January peak, while MSCI Inc’s global index is little changed over the same period.
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
ADVERSARIES: The new list includes 11 entities in China and one in Taiwan, which is a local branch of Chinese cloud computing firm Inspur Group The US added dozens of entities to a trade blacklist on Tuesday, the US Department of Commerce said, in part to disrupt Beijing’s artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced computing capabilities. The action affects 80 entities from countries including China, the United Arab Emirates and Iran, with the commerce department citing their “activities contrary to US national security and foreign policy.” Those added to the “entity list” are restricted from obtaining US items and technologies without government authorization. “We will not allow adversaries to exploit American technology to bolster their own militaries and threaten American lives,” US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said. The entities
Minister of Finance Chuang Tsui-yun (莊翠雲) yesterday told lawmakers that she “would not speculate,” but a “response plan” has been prepared in case Taiwan is targeted by US President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, which are to be announced on Wednesday next week. The Trump administration, including US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, has said that much of the proposed reciprocal tariffs would focus on the 15 countries that have the highest trade surpluses with the US. Bessent has referred to those countries as the “dirty 15,” but has not named them. Last year, Taiwan’s US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US
Prices of gasoline and diesel products at domestic gas stations are to fall NT$0.2 and NT$0.1 per liter respectively this week, even though international crude oil prices rose last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said yesterday. International crude oil prices continued rising last week, as the US Energy Information Administration reported a larger-than-expected drop in US commercial crude oil inventories, CPC said in a statement. Based on the company’s floating oil price formula, the cost of crude oil rose 2.38 percent last week from a week earlier, it said. News that US President Donald Trump plans a “secondary
RSS