1. A lot of people have trouble grasping that there are many different kinds of US businesses in China for very different reasons, and which present very different issues.

2. The common perception in DC, and even on Main Street, is that they are all there to manufacture for export to the US (and that they can be encouraged to move back). That's only an incomplete part of the picture, however.

3. A lot of US companies are in China to sell to the Chinese market. McDonald's, KFC, General Motors, Starbucks all earn a substantial part of their revenue from sales in China.

4. In some cases, like GM, they manufacture in China for the Chinese market. It's fair to ask whether Chinese government policies have forced them to manufacture in China rather than exporting from elsewhere ...

5. ... but there are also other reasons any company might choose to locate manufacturing close to its intended market.

6. Some US companies operating in China are required to form joint ventures or transfer technology as a condition of accessing the market. This violates WTO rules, but is often hard to prove.

7. But how much this affects US companies and their competitiveness varies a great deal by industry. Obviously it potentially creates a bigger issue for a company like Boeing than it does for Starbucks.

8. Censorship and data security is a huge issue for some companies (Google, Facebook, etc) and largely a non-issue for others.

9. My point only that I often hear a lot of people making broad claims about US companies in China, the issues they face, and whether they should be there at all. Lumping them all together can create misleading impressions about both problems and solutions.