Party discipline 'purifies' investment environment for foreign firms

The Communist Party of China (CPC)'s intensified discipline campaign has influenced foreign companies in the country, with experts saying the move could provide a fair environment for investments in China.

The Beijing Foreign Enterprise Service Group Co., Ltd (FESCO) has helped establish 191 Party branches in foreign companies for Party members who work there, including Alcatel-Lucent, Toshiba and Deloitte, in Beijing since 1979, the Beijing Daily reported.

"Corruption often surfaces when Chinese and foreign companies deal with each other. For instance, some key figures in the government who seek personal gain would enter into shady deals with some foreign companies," Hu Xingdou, a professor at the Beijing Institute of Technology and expert on China's social problems, told the Global Times.

Hu said that these illegal activities would undermine the national property.

In 2014, the China branch of British drug maker GlaxoSmithKline was fined 3 billion yuan ($489 million) for paying bribes, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

"Tightening Party management, including a crackdown on corruption, could purify the investment environment in China and make it fair in the long run," Ren Jianming, an anti-corruption expert at Beihang University, told the Global Times.

The rapid development of Party branches in foreign companies began in 2001, when then-president Jiang Zemin announced at the celebration of the 80th Anniversary of the founding of the CPC that people working in all kinds of companies, including foreign- or privately-owned, all "contributed to the socialist construction," Zhang Dong, director of the Party committee office at the Beijing Investment Promotion Bureau, told the Global Times in a previous report.

Yu Fuzhong, the director of the Shanghai Foreign Service Company's Party committee office, said that the establishment of Party branches could help maintain political stability and cultivate Party members to become high-quality talent for companies.

Sumsung has had a Party Branch for around 20 years. "In order to stay in China for a long time, our company aims to be liked by the Chinese people and to contribute to Chinese society," Samsung China President Chang Won-kie was quoted by chinanews.com as saying.

FESCO also provides an activity center for Party members to organize activities for Party building.

"Establishing Party branches in foreign companies in China could also cheer up Chinese employees and improve their work, which is part of company management," Hu said.

However, Hu noted that China should also be aware of any interference between Chinese and foreign companies in the name of intensifying Party management.