Shanghai’s and Beijing’s airports are nearly deserted. Foreign investment is down 80 percent. Yet we all benefit from the exchange between cultures.
Six months after China lifted Covid-19 restrictions and reopened its borders, visitors are staying away in droves.
The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Shanghai’s and Beijing’s airports are nearly deserted. In the first half of 2023 less than a quarter of visitors travelled there compared to 2019.
The problem has little to do with recovery from the Pandemic. Instead, it’s the steady rise in geopolitical tensions; China’s mounting economic and social problems, and the “decoupling” of China from the West.
Foreign direct investment has plummeted by 80 percent year over year. Thus, businesspeople have less reason to travel there. And more reasons to stay away. Employees at several US consulting companies have been detained, their offices searched. The business climate is no longer roll out the red carpet for foreign businesspeople. Pandemic supply chain snafus have made reliance on China a bigger risk than was realized.
Fewer deals mean fewer relationships and fewer reasons to travel there.
Remembering When China Was the “In” Country
Excitement was in the air during my first trip to China, in 2002. Globalization was on the rise, and the world was flat, according to influential columnist Tom Friedman. My book, “Driving Growth Through Innovation” had just been translated into Chinese. Citibank, IBM and other multinationals invited me to address their top leaders across Asia. This was at a time when China was considered a juggernaut, and the “China Price” was wiping out America’s small and mid-sized manufacturers by the score. Even the sleepiest American manufacturers were encouraged to go to China to find low-cost contract manufacturers to take over production. And everybody wanted to go there to check out this economic miracle that was lifting millions out of poverty.
