BEIJING — China is actively seeking foreign investment to boost its slowing growth, but that very sluggishness is weighing on company plans to grow their businesses in the world's second largest economy, an annual survey of more than 500 European companies has found.
The economic worries are layered on top of long-running complaints about regulations and practices that companies say favor their Chinese competitors or are unclear, creating uncertainty for businesses and their employees. Others includingThose older issues are now compounded by the weaker economy, eroding business confidence, said Jens Eskelund, the president of the European Chamber.
“What is important to foreign companies is not necessarily sort of a headline GDP number — 5.3%, whatever — but the composition of GDP,” he said. About one-third of the companies were optimistic about growing their business this year, down from more than half in 2023, and only 15% were optimistic about profit growth.
An Apple spokesperson declined to comment but directed inquiries to the Ad Age report. The advertisement titled "Crush" has over a million views on Apple's YouTube channel and was shared by CEO Tim Cook on social media platform X. It shows a variety of creative tools and objects such as a camera, guitar, piano and paint being destroyed by an industrial crusher.