In the latest ease of doing business ranking announced by the World Bank, China ranked 31st, a rise of 15 places and surpassed France. China’s rank has been rising in the last two years, and was 78th in 2017. In the World Bank report, China has continuously improved in areas such as dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, implementing business tax reforms and resolving insolvency, some of which are far above regional average levels. It is worth noting that there has been a lot of criticism of China’s business environment in recent years from Westerners and Chinese.
These criticisms have generally accelerated the improvement of China’s business environment. The overall attitude of the Chinese government is to face up to these criticisms and continue to make progress.Many developing economies have made big strides in their business environment, according to the World Bank ranking. India ranked 63rd, a huge jump. The trade war is disrupting the world economic structure, forcing many countries to strengthen internal reform and make efforts to promote investment and expand domestic demand. Major developing economies are ahead of many developed ones in terms of how much effort they have made. The attacks from the West on China’s business environment often tend to be exaggerated and politicized, but the rise in China’s rank shows an opposite trend. The contrast is very impressive. It is understandable when internal and external public opinion criticize China’s business environment. Enterprises hope to operate more smoothly and achieve greater returns in China.
But there are also criticisms that mingle with political purpose and bias. They try to smear China, and the World Bank report has given them the best response. If entrepreneurs were to be fooled by public opinion and make decisions based on the idea that China’s business environment is worsening, that would result in nothing but huge losses. China can refute the malicious criticisms, but should not necessarily waste too much time going against them. The only right way is to focus on how to solve the actual problems and respond to all kinds of reasonable complaints and unreasonable accusations with continuous improvement and progress.
