American CEOs used to swoon over China. Its vast pool of consumers has been a magnetic draw for decades. But doing business there has become so fraught and risky – with intellectual property theft and an expanded espionage law used to intimidate the business community – that U.S. companies have pressed the pause button.
On top of that, the U.S.-China relationship has become contentious due partly to Beijing’s belligerent activity toward Taiwan and in the South China Sea, the balloon spy incident of last year, and the list goes on.
Making matters worse, the Chinese economy has hit a wall: export growth is slowing, the country’s drowning in debt, and youth unemployment has soared.
Getting into China to tell that story is all but impossible for most Western journalists.
But when the U.S. ambassador, Nicholas Burns, invited us to come for a visit and an interview, we were granted visas. We spoke with him at his residence in Beijing.
Nicholas Burns: More money is leaving China for the first time in 40 years than is coming in from American, Japanese, European, Korean investors.
60 Minutes
Lesley Stahl: Now why is that? And how much of a problem is that for them?
Nicholas Burns: That’s a real problem for this economy. They have 1.4 billion people here. They’ve gotta keep it growing, and foreign capital is important. You ask why. I think there’s been a contradiction in the messaging from the government here in China to the rest of the world. On the one hand, they say, “We’re open for business. We want American, Chi– Japanese businesses here.” But on the other hand, they’ve raided six or seven American businesses since last March.
Lesley Stahl: Raided?
Nicholas Burns: Raided. They’ve gone into American companies and
