Employees work at the production line of Tianjin FAW Toyota Motor Co Ltd in Tianjin on Feb 18. [Photo/Xinhua]

Though the COVID-19 pandemic has had an impact on foreign-funded companies operating in China, the possible withdrawal of some United States and Japanese companies will not crash the country's economy as supportive government policies, market scale and an advanced industrial supply chain are sufficient.

Foreign enterprises have made contributions to China becoming the world's second-largest economy and the biggest destination for FDI as they have brought capital, technology, management expertise and equipment into the country. However, China's development hasn't depended solely on "charity" from US or Japanese firms. As long as the country is fully prepared and continues to create a high-level business environment for global companies, it certainly can cope with the possible distortive effects generated by some US and Japanese companies' withdrawing. Based on its developing strength, China has three trump cards that allow it to remain competitive in attracting global investment from a long-term perspective.

First of all, consider China's appealing domestic market.

China has 400 million middle-income consumers. After the novel coronavirus outbreak, China will offer more favorable policies to win over new foreign investment and try to maintain its current stock of foreign investment and design new growth points in areas such as 5G, extra-high voltage and the internet of things. Backed by these factors, the Chinese economy will continue to grow in the coming decades and China will become the world's largest consumer market. Therefore, we are fully confident about these facts and more companies from Europe, North America, Japan and South Korea will continue to value this fast-developing market.

There is also a growing tendency among manufacturers, including Chinese firms, to shift production lines to economies in Southeast Asia such as Vietnam, Indonesia and Myanmar in pursuit of lower labor costs. However, the novel coronavirus outbreak this year has also revealed how much these relocated facilities still depend on China for a number of production elements such as equipment, materials, skilled workers, power and spare parts, and many have been forced to partially shut down due to supplies of these essentials being cut off.

In addition to market opportunities, corporate investment also values the business environment and whether foreign investors' rights and market access can be treated equally in a foreign country. China has been constantly improving its business and legal environment to facilitate the growth of global companies, as well as accelerating innovation and cutting administrative barriers in its pilot free trade zones across the country.

The third is China's open, stable and well-developed industrial and supply chains.

China must separately develop open, stable and safe industrial and supply chains in both international and domestic markets to prevent unexpected risks. If these two chains are successfully built, China will be able to become a driving force behind the recovery of the global economy.

Because the world has entered the era of globalization, multinationals will remain optimistic about China, and there won't be large-scale withdrawal of FDI from the market despite some US or Japanese companies' withdrawing parts of factories to either their home markets or to other parts of the world.