China’s central government has no policy of forcing foreign companies to transfer valuable technology to their Chinese partners, Zhou Xiaochuan, the former head of the People’s Bank of China, has claimed.
However, during the same seminar in Switzerland, Zhou also said that Beijing should respond to external complaints from foreign business and governments by plugging loopholes in practices regarding subsidies and tech transfer, according to Caixin.
A key issue in the growing trade war between China and the United States are allegations that China often forces foreign firms to hand over valuable trade secrets in order to do business in the country. That issue, as well as the subsidies Beijing offers strategic industries and alleged intellectual property theft, are the main justifications Washington has used for imposing tariffs on $250 billion of Chinese imports in recent months.
“What I want to emphasize is that there is no mandatory police of technology transfer at the state level,” said Zhou, adding that there could be loopholes at the local level that Beijing should try to fix.