Amid attacks by Chinese government and media, foreign companies receive mixed signals Business for foreigners in China has never been entirely smooth sailing, but the intensity and frequency of the latest salvos have rung alarm bells throughout the business community here. Foreign companies say they feel like scapegoats - in part in reaction to the economic downturn and in part in an attempt to deflect attention from China's own domestic food and drug safety concerns. Nor is the pressure likely to abate "for the foreseeable future," complained one leading American businessman, who asked not to be identified to avoid trouble with the authorities. We are an easy target because we don't have political backing, we don't have a patron. Yet in China, nothing is ever quite as straightforward as it might seem. At the same time that foreign companies have come under attack, trade bodies that lobby on their behalf say they have been given unprecedented access to high-level government officials, something of a "charm offensive" that has come as a pleasant surprise. In July, China agreed to restart talks on a Bilateral Investment Treaty with the United States that could significantly improve market access for U.S. companies, although negotiations are sure to be long and tortuous. Plans to open mainland China's first Free Trade Zone in Shanghai, with more liberal rules for investors, have also been welcomed, while China has even expressed interest in joining a proposed Transpacific Partnership, a giant free-trade zone that it had originally eyed with suspicion. The mixed signals "reflect the conflicted attitude that you have towards foreign investment in China," said Arthur Kroeber, managing director of economic research firm GaveKal Dragonomics. On the one hand there is a strong need to have it, but at the same time there is a little bit of insecurity and resentment about the large positions foreign companies have in hand. So you see China welcoming it with one hand, and pushing back with another. In a sense, the slowdown in China's economy only serves to accentuate that contradiction, fueling the resentment toward foreign companies that are doing well here, while underscoring the country's need to attract fresh foreign money. In March, state broadcaster China Central Television accused Apple of offering worse after-sales service here than in other parts of the world, prompting the government to threaten tougher regulation. In July, CCTV turned its attention to American fast food giants, saying its tests showed that ice cubes at KFC were dirtier than toilet water and that those at McDonald's were not up to drinking-water standards.