In China, the Police Came for the Consultants. Now the C.E.O.s Are Alarmed.

The China Development Forum, a high-profile, government-hosted conference with a who’s who of international executives in attendance, was a moment for Beijing to renew its efforts to win over foreign businesses. Businesses from outside China “are not foreigners, but family,” said Wang Wentao, China’s commerce minister. State media reported that the chief executives of Apple, Pfizer and Procter & Gamble were at the forum, held in late March. Many of the dozens of business leaders there were on their first trip to China since the country had closed its markets…

Capvision, a Consulting Firm, is Raided by Chinese Authorities

China has targeted another global business consulting firm on national security grounds, launching an investigation of the Shanghai-based Capvision Partners as part of a broader crackdown on the industry, state media reported on Monday night. Officers raided several of the firm’s offices in China, including in Shanghai, Beijing, Suzhou and Shenzhen, state media said, explaining that the company was not “earnestly fulfilling the responsibilities and obligations” of preventing espionage. Capvision did not immediately respond to a request for comment. On Monday night, the company said on its official account on…

Even as China Reopens, Security Visits Spook Foreign Businesses

With China’s pandemic restrictions dismantled and its leaders wooing executives flying into the country again, this was supposed to be a springtime of renewed investor confidence in the world’s second-biggest economy. But a drumbeat of government security measures, including a broadening of counterespionage laws, and unannounced visits by investigators to the Chinese offices of several foreign firms have sent a shiver of worry that under Xi Jinping, economic pragmatism could again give way to a heightened focus on state control. International consulting and advisory firms are among those that have…