China’s Covid Policy Is Costing It Foreign Investors’ Confidence

China’s Covid Policy Is Costing It Foreign Investors’ Confidence

American companies such as Tesla have had their China operations disrupted by Covid lockdowns in ... [+] Shanghai in the past several weeks. (Photo by Xiaolu Chu/Getty Images) Shanghai over the weekend unveiled a 50-point plan to ease the economic fallout from its "zero-Covid" policy after lockdowns in the past several weeks in the global business hub created financial losses, disrupted global supply chains, and stirred concerns about a lack of transparency and predictability. The impact on foreign businesses from the tumult isn't likely about to go away anytime soon, according to Alan Beebe, a former president of the American Chamber of Commerce in China and long-time China hand who is now an external consultant at Bain & Co. based in Beijing. "Confidence is being lost. China's always been, relatively speaking, a very predictable business environment. You may not like all the policies, but at least it's been predictable," Beebe said in a Zoom interview. "Now, it's very unpredictable, and businesses of course don't like that. And this comes on top of last year's crackdown in the Chinese private sector, for tech companies and education companies in particular." New York-listed shares in Internet heavyweight Alibaba have lost 57% of their