China | Firm control

China’s Communist Party is tightening its grip in businesses

Foreign investors are worried

A visitor to the Museum of the Communist Party of China holds a party flag near a sculpture depicting workers
Image: AP

It was a chilly afternoon in early February. In Yingshang, a town in the central province of Anhui, local bosses of more than 100 big private firms kept their jackets on as they took their seats behind rows of desks in a Communist Party meeting room. Three officials, flanked by red flags, sat on the dais before them to explain some new procedures. The businessmen were there to learn how to rewrite their company charters to specify a role for the party.

This article appeared in the China section of the print edition under the headline “Firm control”

From the July 8th 2023 edition

Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents

Explore the edition

More from China

An installation that is part of an exhibition by Ai Weiwei, a Chinese artist, depicts his detention

An outrage that even China’s supine media has called out

Anger is growing over a form of detention linked to torture and deaths

Signage of the law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP

Why foreign law firms are leaving China

A number of them are in motion to vacate


Electric vehicles in a factory car park in Chongqing, China

An initiative so feared that China has stopped saying its name

“Made in China 2025” has been a success, but at what cost?


A pay rise for government workers sparks anger and envy in China

The effort to improve morale has not had the intended effect

A big earthquake causes destruction in Tibet

Dozens are dead, thousands of buildings have been destroyed