American firms’ optimism about China has fallen to a record low, with Chinese President Xi Jinping’s "COVID zero" policy causing more than half of companies to delay or cancel investment, a new survey from an U.S. business group shows.
Pandemic-related shutdowns pose an even bigger headache to U.S. companies in China than worsening relations between Beijing and Washington, according to a survey by the U.S.-China Business Council (USCBC). Only 51% of respondents expressed some degree of optimism about their five-year business outlook in the world’s second-largest economy, well down from 69% last year.
"The looming possibility that companies will again be forced to partially halt operations due to lockdowns and the impacts of local controls on consumer demand have undermined confidence in the business environment,” said the report, which was released Monday U.S. time.