The news coming out of China these days is not what the world has come to expect, as a "new normal" of slower economic growth — down to about 7 percent — takes hold.

Concerns also grow about persistently polluted air and water, and a feeling among some foreign companies that they are being unfairly targeted.

One result is that even international businesses once enamored of China's more than 1 billion consumers are rethinking the market.