Chinese businesses are retreating from the US as relations between the world’s two largest economies deteriorate.
Chinese investment plunged to $2.5bn in the US last year — the lowest in more than a decade and down from a record $48bn in 2016, according to an analysis by Rhodium Group, a think-tank. Business activity, including revenue and local employment, at Chinese companies that were already present in the US market has also declined.
“The environment in the US has become more challenging for Chinese investors,” says Adam Smith, a partner at law firm Gibson Dunn and a former US Treasury adviser. “Being concerned about China has become a real bipartisan issue upon which almost everybody can agree, rightly or wrongly.”