The New Trend for Chinese Companies — Dropping China
Some of China's fastest-growing companies are doing their best to portray themselves as coming from somewhere else.
A worker makes clothes at a garment factory that supplies SHEIN in Guangdong province on July 18, 2022. Credit: Jade Gao/AFP via Getty Images
When is a Chinese company not a Chinese company? Some of China’s most dynamic firms are distancing themselves from the world’s second-largest economy, after finding themselves subject to unwelcome scrutiny over their origins.
Popular fast fashion brand Shein relocated its headquarters to Singapore in 2021. In April, it deregistered its original parent company in Nanjing. E-commerce platform Temu has been headquartered in Boston since its launch last September, while its parent company PDD Holdings moved its headquarters to Ireland in the first quarter of this year, according to its SEC filings.
Corporations from Apple to Pfizer have long registered in foreign jurisdictions, often in order to reduce their tax burdens. Rarely, though, have companies moved abroad to rebrand their national identity. Such maneuvers complicate the question of what makes a firm Chinese, posing potential issues for their customers, suppliers and investors as they navigate increased restri
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