TAIPEI, Taiwan – China has released all employees of a U.S. corporate due diligence firm who had been detained in Beijing for the past two years in a move seemingly aimed at reassuring foreign businesses amid declining foreign investment.
In May 2023, Beijing reportedly detained five staff members of Mintz Group after the U.S. firm conducted corporate due diligence investigations into the potential use of forced labor in goods supplied from Xinjiang.
China has faced international criticism over allegations of forced labor in Xinjiang, where Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities are reportedly detained and made to work in cotton and manufacturing industries. Beijing has denied the claims, describing them as false and insisting that the facilities are vocational training centers aimed at countering extremism.
The detention of Mintz Group staff turned out to be the beginning of a sweeping crackdown on consultancy and due diligence firms, including Bain & Company’s office in Shanghai and Capvision Partners.
At that time, foreign firms with business in China expressed concern that the crackdown damaged investor confidence in the world’s second-largest economy.
“We understand that the Mintz Group Beijing employees who were detained, all Chinese nationals, have now all been released,” Mintz Group said in a statement to Reuters on Tuesday.
“We are grateful to the Chinese authorities that our former colleagues can now be home with their families.”
China has not responded to the company’s statement.
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The release came a day after China’s top officials vowed to welcome more multinational companies. The country is eager to stabilize foreign investment and attract new capital as policymakers seek to boost domestic consumption to mitigate the effects of U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods.
Since taking office in January, the Trump administration has imposed 20% tariffs on all Chinese imports, accusing Beijing of failing to adequately curb the flow of fentanyl into the United States.
Official data show that foreign direct investment in China fell by 27.1% in local currency terms in 2024 compared to the previous year – the steepest decline since the 2008 global financial crisis.
“China remains committed to expanding high-level opening-up of market, improving the business environment and welcoming more multinational companies to deepen their investment in China,” China’s Vice Premier He Lifeng said at the China Development Forum in Beijing.
Separately, Chinese Premier Li Qiang, speaking at the forum on Sunday, also urged countries to open their markets to combat “rising instability and uncertainty.”
U.S. Republican Senator Steve Daines, a staunch supporter of President Donald Trump, met Li on Sunday with seven senior executives from U.S. companies. Daines called the meeting a chance for them to air their views on the business environment in China directly to Li.
Some 86 company representatives from 21 countries came to the business forum this year, with American firms making up the largest group of attendees, China’s state broadcaster CCTV reported.
Edited by Taejun Kang and Stephen Wright.