China is likely to continue imposing strict lockdowns until 2023, the US ambassador to the country said Thursday, warning that Beijing’s zero Covid strategy is bad for trade.
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“My theory is that we will probably see (the strategy) zero Covid continue until early 2023“, said Ambassador Nicholas Burns to the Brookings Institution think tank. Lockdowns are further disrupting already strained supply chains and leading foreign companies to postpone possible new investments.
“A lot of hesitation to invest”
“It’s too big a market for countries to leave, so we don’t see a lot of companies leaving it completely.“, he said during a video intervention from Beijing. But from his conversations with American businessmen and women, the ambassador retains that “there is a lot of hesitation to invest in future bonds before they see this all over“.
Read the fileChina facing the world
A quarter of American companies in Shanghai are reducing their investments in this metropolis considered to be the economic capital of China, and almost all expect a drop in their revenues this year, according to a study published on Wednesday by the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham ) from the city. China is the last major world economy to maintain a zero Covid strategy, which is based on the quarantine of people who test positive, targeted confinements or even mandatory PCR tests.
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