Investing in China no longer foreign

First, the company should emphasize strengthening its efforts to blend in with the Chinese culture and surroundings. It is helpful for the company to move most of its major business activities to China, especially in research and development. The R&D department should not only target the Chinese market but look out globally.

Second, since China is continuously upgrading its industries, foreign-invested companies - to help develop China into a more environmentally friendly economy - should begin selling low-carbon products, making factories environmentally efficient and helping Chinese suppliers promote low-carbon business activities.

Third, foreign-invested companies should strengthen their cooperation with domestic companies, shifting cooperation from manufacturing to R&D, from hardware production to software designing, from the domestic market to the global market. General Motors and SAIC Motor Corp, China's biggest auto manufacturer, partnered to produce and sell vehicles in India. Partnering with the Aluminum Corporation of China, Alcoa Inc bought shares in Rio Tinto. Those cases have demonstrated the potential for cooperation between multinational and Chinese companies.

Fourth, the companies should make sure their business practices are in compliance with China's laws and regulations. For many years, several multinational corporations have come to understand and practice corporate social responsibility. Companies should shoulder the responsibility of doing business in accordance with Chinese laws.

Thirty years after China opened up and reformed, the Chinese economy has developed sustainably by letting State-owned, private and foreign-invested companies to compete fairly with each other. But China, in order to stimulate economic growth, must give foreign-invested companies equal access to the market.

China should listen to criticism from foreign investors and improve its investments landscape but foreign investors must show patience with China's investment outlook, which is gradually improving. If this happens, China's economy will develop tremendously.

The author is the director of the transnational corporations research center under the Ministry of Commerce.