American tech group IBM is closing down the majority of its research and development efforts in China, becoming the latest US company to pull back from the world’s second-largest economy amid increasing tensions between Washington and Beijing.
Employees said more than 1,000 staff were losing their jobs, spread between several offices in mainland cities and working in two research-focused units — China Development Lab and China Systems Lab.
IBM’s move to shed R&D staff comes as a broader retrenchment by American companies takes place in China. In May, Microsoft offered to relocate hundreds of Chinese staff working on cloud and artificial intelligence as the US continued to restrict China’s access to sensitive technologies. Microsoft had earlier closed its LinkedIn social networking site in the country.