Bill Gates meets with then-Chinese President Jiang Zemin, February 2003. Aiming to assuage Chinese concerns over the security of their network, Microsoft agreed to allow Chinese authorities to view the source code for its flagship operating system, Windows XP. A year earlier, the software giant had also established a joint venture with an investment firm run by Jiang's son. Credit: Liu Weibing, Xinhua/AP Photo
LinkedIn is quitting China: but what of its parent, Microsoft, and its links to the world’s second-largest economy?
Seattle-based Microsoft has one of the longest relationships with China of any major Western tech company. Founder Bill Gates has met every Chinese leader from Jiang Zemin to Xi Jinping. Yet the returns on this long strategic investment are looking pretty meager these days. Microsoft garnered just 1.8 percent of its 2019 global revenue in China, company president Brad Smith said in January 2020.Microsoft reported about $125 billion in revenue in 2019.
Doing business in China is getting tougher for Microsoft, along with other foreign tech firms. LinkedIn cited “a significantly more challenging operating environment and greater compliance requirements” among its reasons for leaving (although it left out those points in its Chinese-language explanation).
This week, The Wire looks at Microsoft’s China business, including what’s left and the concession
Exclusive longform investigative journalism, Q&As, news and analysis, and data on Chinese business elites and corporations. We publish China scoops you won't find anywhere else.
A weekly curated reading list on China from David Barboza, Pulitzer Prize-winning former Shanghai correspondent for The New York Times.
A daily roundup of China finance, business and economics headlines.
We offer discounts for groups, institutions and students. Go to our Subscriptions page for details.
Why is one of Taiwan's largest media groups — Want Want China Times Media Group — spreading anti-U.S. rhetoric? Largely because its billionaire owner, Tsai Eng-meng, is known to sympathize with the Chinese Communist Party and favors unification with the mainland. Now, with Taiwan gearing up for a critical presidential election, Want Want’s efforts are picking up and helping to normalize CCP talking points.
A look at ZPMC: how it came to dominate ports around the world; its role in Chinese foreign policy; and the consequences of its links to the Chinese state.
The author and academic talks about how trade has actually changed over the last 40 years; why China's rise is linked to Asia's regionalization; and why international supply chains are efficient and resilient.
