China’s stringent “zero COVID” policy of travel restrictions and city-wide lockdowns is likely to stretch into next year, and is actively discouraging American and European investment in China, the U.S. ambassador to the country said.
“My honest assumption is that we’ll see the continuation of ‘zero COVID’ probably into the beginning months of 2023 — that’s what the Chinese government is signaling,” Nicholas Burns, the American envoy in Beijing, said during an online event on Thursday.
The harsh lockdown in the commercial center and financial hub of Shanghai — where many U.S. companies have operations and base executives — has prompted many American businesspeople to leave the country, Burns said. At one point, the U.S. embassy and the Shanghai consulate had 80 consular officers working round-the-clock helping citizens “who wanted to get out, needed water and food, needed medical care,” he said.
