Indeed these business are quite successful (especially KFC and McDonalds) but I believe they're mostly joint ventures which in itself has a whole bunch of pitfalls.<p>More importantly they're in an exceptional business segment (that of selling western fast food) which local Chinese companies are unable to play almost by definition.  I suppose Intel is another example, but that's really only due to the fact that it's also not practical to have a local competitor to it.  They would if they could.<p>I'm sure you could find other companies where there's an exception, so my statements and that of the OP's article should only be taken as generalities.  But I believe they're true much more often than not.