The heads of General Electric, Siemens and BASF are known in Beijing as “foreign friends” of China. This hallowed title comes with certain responsibilities, chief among them defending the autocratic Beijing's government policies from its critics abroad.

If foreign friends fail in this task or become openly critical of the Chinese leadership they can find themselves accused of being ignorant of China and its unique national conditions or, even worse, of “hurting the feelings of 1.3bn people”.

So how will China react to Jeffrey Immelt, Peter L?scher and Jürgen Hambrecht – chief executives of GE, Siemens and BASF, respectively – after their recent attacks on the difficulties of doing business in China? What have they risked by speaking out? So great is the fear of losing the special status of “friend of China” and being shut out of the huge and growing market that global executives almost never complain publicly about their hardships.