Link: https://www.yahoo.com/news/china-tycoon-moves-jobs-us-citing-high-taxes-093204655--finance.html
Fuyao Glass claims to be the world's biggest exporter of auto glass (AFP Photo/Juan Mabromata)
Shanghai
(AFP) - A Chinese auto glass tycoon has caused a stir by shifting part
of his empire to the United States and setting up a factory in Ohio,
citing high taxes and soaring labour costs at home.
Cao
Dewang's $600-million investment comes after Donald Trump threatened to
declare Beijing a currency manipulator and slap 45 percent punitive
tariffs on Chinese imports to protect American jobs.
The
70-year-old tycoon's decision to open a glass factory in the eastern
American state of Ohio in October -- a rare case of jobs being exported
from China to the US -- triggered an outpouring of criticism on social
media.
The
phrase "Cao Dewang has escaped" became a hot topic, generating nearly
10 million views on the Twitter-like Weibo microblog and many comments
urging China to "not let Cao Dewang run away".
Cao's
Fuyao Glass Industry Group -- a supplier to big names including
Volkswagen and General Motors -- claims to be the biggest exporter of
auto glass in the world, reporting 2.6 billion yuan ($370 million)
profits last year.
Cao
defended himself in an interview with the Beijing News Wednesday,
saying he "did not run and will not run. The centre of my business is in
China because I'm Chinese".
"I'm
a business man and I'm doing business in the US," he said. "I'm merely
reminding the government" that taxes and labour costs are too high.
In
an interview with the state-owned China Business News last week, Cao
said the country was home to the "world's highest taxes" and that the
manufacturing industry suffered under taxes 35 percent higher than those
imposed by the US.
Cao is a high-school dropout who began building his fortune as a salesman for a local glassmaker.
The
Fuyao group owns production lines in nearly a dozen Chinese cities
including the capital Beijing and the commercial hub Shanghai. It also
has a factory in Russia, according to its website.
Defending
Cao's remarks, the Communist Party mouthpiece the People’s Daily said
Thursday that the fact that "entrepreneurs dare to raise problems means
(they) still hold confidence in China’s economy".
Cao’s
comments reflect "strong personal feelings" but they touch on "some of
the deep conflicts and problems in China’s economy", it said.
1 comment:
We don't want Chinese companies in the U.S. We want American companies putting Americans to work.
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