As snap lockdowns and quarantine measures disrupted China’s business landscape in October, a high-profile survey of foreign companies in Shanghai showed optimism had hit its lowest level as a result of Beijing’s coronavirus policies.
But just weeks later at the China International Import Expo in Shanghai, one of the world’s biggest trade fairs attended by more than half of global Fortune 500 companies, a section of businesses including Kärcher, a German cleaning equipment manufacturer, and Cytiva, a US life sciences company, said they were investing more in China.
Rather than rely on Chinese factories to produce goods that are ultimately sold elsewhere, the businesses are adopting a “China for China” strategy, which aims to draw on deeper research and development facilities in the country to make products for a vast, growing domestic market.