The (US-HQ'd) company I work for has a small but significant office in China. We are not a household name, even within tech, so I doubt we'd be a target of any retaliation by China.
However, my worry is this: Whilst we have a lot of really good people in China, we don't do any business in China (and there's no realistic prospect of us doing so). So at this point operating in China seems like a huge exposure to risk for relatively little reward in the long term.
But I don't see an alternative for us. Pull out of China and business continuity would take a huge hit; stay in China and accept the risks & uncertainty.
Your Chinese employees will be fine, but foreign personel coming in should indeed be very careful not to pique the party's attention as it will actively be seeking pawns.
How bad of a hit would your business continuity take? Not to get dramatic, but, is it worth risking the lives of your employees over? Personally I won't step foot within PRC borders given my staunch pro-Taiwan sovereignty stance. It's a vicious state that has in the past indicated it will go to any lengths to protect its stature.
Zoom raises the possibility of this perception in their S-1 filing [0]:
"we have a high concentration of research and development personnel in China, which could expose us to market scrutiny regarding the integrity of our solution or data security features"
However, my worry is this: Whilst we have a lot of really good people in China, we don't do any business in China (and there's no realistic prospect of us doing so). So at this point operating in China seems like a huge exposure to risk for relatively little reward in the long term.
But I don't see an alternative for us. Pull out of China and business continuity would take a huge hit; stay in China and accept the risks & uncertainty.
Basically, I'm torn about the whole situation.