Chinese officials promise foreign investors greater access

Foreign investors have been flooding into China over the past two weeks. For all but a few, it is their first trip in three years, since the country walled itself off from the outside world in a bid to exclude covid-19. Those who did enter during the height of China’s zero-covid mania spent weeks in quarantine, emerging to find a society under suffocating lockdowns.Unsurprisingly, the value of onshore stocks held by foreigners had fallen by December to 3.2trn yuan ($470bn), about 4% of the total mainland market capitalisation—and down from 4.3% a year earlier, according to the most recent official data. Meanwhile, the value of Chinese private-equity deals collapsed by 53% last year compared with the one before, according to Bain & Co, a consultancy.