{"id":678990,"date":"2026-05-19T05:17:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T05:17:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/678990\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T05:17:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T05:17:13","slug":"chinas-firms-have-a-glaring-weakness-as-they-face-a-barrage-of-eu-probes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/678990\/","title":{"rendered":"China\u2019s firms have a glaring weakness as they face a barrage of EU probes"},"content":{"rendered":"

With their domestic profits narrowing and production capacity expanding, China\u2019s firms are continuing to widen their overseas footprints in search of new, more lucrative markets. In this series<\/a>, we examine China Inc.\u2019s next phase of \u201cgoing global\u201d and the complex, challenging international environment its companies have chosen to enter.<\/p>\n

Not long ago, plans were in motion to build an enormous battery factory in the Belgian countryside. If completed, it would have created an estimated 2,000 jobs for the local economy and served as a flagship facility for a Chinese company expanding into the European market.<\/p>\n

But the project is now in limbo \u2013 not due to geopolitical tensions<\/a> or a trade dispute between Beijing and Brussels, but a simple misunderstanding. The Chinese firm only recently discovered that salaries in Belgium are indexed to inflation, an added cost that was not made clear in its original feasibility study.<\/p>\n

The company, which has not been named due to the sensitivity of the matter, likely made the error by trying to cut corners: it did not hire a law firm to do a proper report, according to Xiufang Tu, a partner and head of the China desk at the Brussels-based Daldewolf law firm.<\/p>\n

Rather than commission a full study, many Chinese companies simply set up meetings with a string of European legal firms and then piece together a basic feasibility report from the titbits of information they glean, Tu said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter that, once the leadership signs off, the decision is made,\u201d she said. \u201cBut in this situation, the information you collect \u2013 if you\u2019re not paying for it \u2013 is very basic and quite superficial.\u201d<\/p>\n

This gung-ho approach to legal services is becoming a major problem as China\u2019s companies rush to go global<\/a>. A wave of Chinese firms is expanding into Europe \u2013 seeking a refuge from<\/a> cutthroat price wars and sluggish demand at home \u2013 and their initial instinct is often to use the same playbook that worked in China.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With their domestic profits narrowing and production capacity expanding, China\u2019s firms are continuing to widen their overseas footprints…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":678991,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[249466,8580,5189,13625,45,49,48,95,249467,249462,249463,46,16794,3456,3052,10816,14984,249464,249465],"class_list":["post-678990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-ashurst","tag-beijing","tag-belgium","tag-brussels","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-china","tag-chinese-chamber-of-commerce-in-europe","tag-crrc","tag-daldewolf","tag-economy","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-fsr","tag-germany","tag-lisbon","tag-madrid-bar-association","tag-noerr"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=678990"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678990\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/678991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=678990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=678990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=678990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}