China Japan Photo: IC

Spokesperson of China's Ministry of Commerce Gao Feng said on the regular press conference on Thursday that the rumor of a large number of Japanese companies is lining up to withdraw from the Chinese market is "totally unfounded."

According to the investigation report from Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) that during 2015 to 2019, the proportion of Japanese companies plan to expand, maintain and reduce their business in China has basically remained stable, of which the proportion of companies that plan to reduce is relatively small. 

Except for the proportion reaching 8.8 percent in 2015, it is between 5 percent and 5.4 percent in 2016-2019. In 2020 April, the agency conducted a survey of about 3500 Japanese companies in southern China. The survey shows that 91.7 percent of those companies have no plan to transfer their business in China, with an increase of 6.9 percentage points from the survey in 2020 February, said Gao.

Gao noted that most Japanese companies in China have not considered exiting from the Chinese market. The investments of some Japanese companies in Japan and Southeast Asian countries are mostly new non-homogeneous projects.

Gao said the statistic from China showed that from January to October this year, among the 29500 newly established foreign-invested enterprises nationwide, 604 of them were from Japan, with actual investment amounting to 20.26 billion yuan ($3.09 billion). 

Gao said that enterprises should follow the guide of market. China has a large-scale market, complete industrial supporting capabilities, sufficient human resources and good basic infrastructure. The so-called "reducing dependence on China" does not conform to market rules and will not become the basis for corporate investment decisions, said Gao.