Ministry clarifies media brand critique

A Starbucks shop in Wangfujing, a busy shopping area in downtown Beijing. China Central Television reported that the Seattle-based company sells its coffee at higher prices in Beijing than in London, Chicago, or Mumbai, India. Zhang Zhenxiang / For China Daily

Chinese media's recent criticism of foreign brands in China is not specially targeted at foreign enterprises, and the country remains a top destination for global investors, a commerce official said on Thursday.

"Recently, China's media reported and criticized the product quality, pricing and after-sales services of some foreign enterprises such as Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and Apple Inc. The reports and criticism showcase the social responsibility of the media outlets and was not purposely targeted at foreign investors," Shen Danyang, a spokesman of the Ministry of Commerce, said during a news conference.

The China Central Television pointed a finger at Samsung (China) Investment Co Ltd in a program earlier this month and said that seven smartphone models under the Galaxy Note II and Galaxy S3 series constantly crashed or malfunctioned. Furthermore, there were high repair fees for Chinese buyers. CCTV also criticized Starbucks for pricing coffee and mugs more expensively in China than in London, Chicago and Mumbai.

This year, the government launched a series of antitrust and anti-corruption investigations ranging from solar panels and infant formula to pharmaceutical products and investigated the Chinese business operations of foreign brands including GlaxoSmithKline, Mead Johnson, Dumex, and Fonterra.

Shen urged enterprises involved in the reports and criticism to take buyers' complaints and media supervision seriously and said businesses should be more than merely lawful to better establish brand image.

A survey by the American Chamber of Commerce in China reported in late October that only 28 percent of surveyed companies said China's investment environment had improved in the last 12 months. The chamber urged China to shorten the "restricted" and "prohibited" categories under the Guiding Catalogue on Foreign Investment in Industry while streamlining the investment approval procedures.