Chinese police have raided the Shanghai offices of WPP-owned media agency GroupM, questioning employees and detaining one senior executive, the Financial Times reported on Friday (Oct 20), citing people with knowledge of the situation.
A financial executive at GroupM China has been detained for further questioning, the report said, adding that the police also spoke to other local executives during the raid, including the CEO of GroupM in China, Patrick Xu.
London-based WPP did not immediately respond to Reuters request for comment, while GroupM declined to comment.
Xu also did not immediately respond when reached out via LinkedIn.
China has recently increased the fines and raids on various US companies which have made it risky to do business in the world’s second-largest economy.
Chinese authorities raided the Mintz Group’s Beijing office in March and detained all five local staff, in what turned out to be the beginning of a sweeping crackdown on consultancy and due diligence firms, including Bain & Co’s office in Shanghai and Capvision Partners.