Washington: Beijing’s zero Covid policy has become a top concern for US firms as strict lockdowns had forced US companies to shut down for months, creating significant uncertainties for businesses in the country, according to an annual survey released US-China business council on Monday.
More than half of the 117 respondents in the survey said they had paused, delayed or axed their investment plans in China due to its strict containment strategy, according to Strait times.
The stringent COVID-19 policy has gripped the lives of people in China and has now started to displace tensions between the United States and China to become the American firms’ chief worry for the first time in five years.
“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 business council’s president, Mr Craig Allen, at a press conference.
The lockdowns have forced US companies to shut down for months, and prevented many US executives from visiting their China operations for several years, he said adding that even if China decided to backtrack on its Covid-19 policies, 44 per cent of the respondents said restoring business confidence would take years.
The survey was conducted in June this year, shortly after a period of widespread lockdowns in response to Covid-19 cases across China, especially in Shanghai.
