As more of China’s foreign firms, investors mull exodus amid zero-Covid controls, what can Beijing do?
- Prominent Chinese experts say flexible coronavirus controls could help foreign businesses that contribute a great deal to the national economy
- Surveys by business lobby groups continue to show how China’s restrictive measures to contain the coronavirus are having far-reaching implications
Beijing cannot afford to overlook a worrying trend of foreign companies becoming more inclined to pull out of China, according to prominent Chinese experts who also say that more flexible coronavirus controls could help address the problem.
However, a growing number of recent surveys by multiple business lobby groups in China reflects how heavy-handed containment measures are undermining foreign investors’ confidence in the world’s second-largest economy.
“If any foreign investors leave because we adhere to the ‘dynamic zero-Covid’ measures, surely China will be worried,” said Peng Peng, executive chairman of the Guangdong Society of Reform, a think tank with ties to the provincial government.
To stabilise the economy, we must stabilise foreign investment
Huo Jianguo, the former head of a think tank under China’s commerce ministry, also said the government must continue to address the hardships facing foreign companies that operate in the country.
“To stabilise the economy, we must stabilise foreign investment,” he said, stressing that the foreign-invested companies remain critical to the Chinese economy.
Both Huo and Peng acknowledged that Chinese authorities have recognised the issue and have begun to take measures to remedy the situation.
During a national teleconference on Monday, Vice-Premier Hu Chunhua called for efforts to be made to stabilise foreign investment. His comments came after the Politburo, China’s top decision-making body, said in late April that leadership would respond to the concerns and appeals of foreign investors grappling with the fallout from fresh coronavirus outbreaks and lockdowns.