(Associated Press via NewsEdge) Cisco Systems announced a $50 million investment in the newly public China Communications Services (CCS), making the US network-equipment maker the largest foreign investor in CCS.
CCS, formerly a subsidiary of the state-controlled China Telecom Group, went public earlier this month on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
CTG, as well as state-controlled China Mobile and China Unicom, are the other big investors in CCS.
CCS helps large Chinese service providers such as China Netcom design and build Internet and other telecommunications networks.
With the investment, Cisco has committed more than $700 million in venture funding to nearly 30 Chinese companies. Other recent investments include e-learning company Ambow and gaming company Shanda.
But doing business in China remains risky, even for Cisco, the most highly valued company in Silicon Valley, with a market capitalization of nearly $165.5 billion.
Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft came under political fire earlier this year for operating in China. The country's communist government is holding 260,000 people in ideological 're-education' camps, according to the US State Department.
After the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989, Congress prohibited US companies from exporting products used for crime detection and control.
The sanctions apply to old-fashioned items such as handcuffs and guns, not modern technology from blue-chip tech companies. But a growing number of human rights advocates and politicians are asking the Commerce Department to modernize the list of prohibited items.
© 2006 The Associated Press
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