Ties between foreign businesses and China go from bad to worse

THE RANKSA of foreign businesspeople in Shanghai are much depleted these days. Those who remain closely monitor the comings and goings of multinational executives. So all eyes were on the Bund Summit, a globally minded economic and financial forum held in the city from September 22nd to 24th. In previous years the forum brought in -list chief executives from around the world. The latest gathering, the first since China lifted its draconian covid-19 restrictions and declared itself open for business, was expected to draw high-powered crowds once again.Not so. Nearly ten months in, President Xi Jinping’s grand reopening from his zero-covid fiasco has been a big disappointment. Foreign investors believed that 2022, when quarantines threw China into a deep freeze, would mark the bottom for gloomy sentiment. Instead the Chinese economy is creaking and cross-border investment flows have weakened. Several foreign businesses have been raided by the authorities. On September 25th the reported that Charles Wang Zhonghe, the chairman of Chinese investment banking at Nomura International, a Japanese bank, had been banned from leaving China. Many foreign investors are skipping trips and, more damagingly, putting off investment plans.