Beware the wrath of a corporate titan scorned. A year ago, the bosses of the world's largest companies oozed with praise for China's handling of the global crisis. “Man, these guys are good,” Jeff Immelt, head of GE, told an audience at West Point.
Maybe it is the summer weather, but when the subject of Beijing comes up these days, multinationals seem to get hot under the collar. Mr Immelt confessed at a dinner in Rome earlier this month: “I am not sure that in the end they want any of us to win, or any of us to be successful.”
At the weekend, Jürgen Hambrecht, chief executive of German chemicals group BASF, and another corporate leader who has assiduously courted China, told Wen Jiabao, premier, that Beijing's current approach to foreign companies “does not exactly correspond to our views of a partnership”. According to reporters present, the exchange was so sharp that Mr Wen asked his German visitor to “calm down”.