China's policymakers promote foreign investment

China is known as one of the world's top investment destinations. However, recent local media reports exposing questionable business practices by multinationals is causing concern among foreign investors. They question whether China's foreign investment environment is getting stricter.

Apple, Starbucks and Samsung - in recent years these multinationals have attracted a huge pool of consumers in the Chinese market, and recently, some media criticism too. Allegations of overcharging and poor after-sale services have made headlines in local media. It's ringing alarm bells for foreign investors: is China deliberately targeting brands from abroad? At a press conference today, the spokesman for the Ministry of Commerce says this is not the case.

"These media reports are not aimed only on foreign brands. The reports need to be put into a more rational perspective. The only criteria here is whether these companies have broken regulations or infringed upon consumer rights," Ministry of Commerce spokesman Shen Danyang said.

The Ministry of Commerce says the government is actually aiming to attract more foreign investment.

"Recently we have allowed foreign investment under the sum of $300 million to be handled by the Ministry of Commerce's local branches. In this way the whole review process will be much more efficient," Shen said.

Apple confirmed that there is something wrong with batteries of "a limited number of " its iphone 5S devices.[Photo / Provided to chinadaily.com.cn]