China’s zero-Covid-19 policies might be over since December, visas might be available and the new government tries to restore business confidence, but the number of expats in Shanghai is still dropping, according to the latest update by Bloomberg. While earlier estimates by chambers of commerce in big cities of 50% of the expats leaving are not confirmed and might have been too high, Shanghai still sees an ongoing exodus, while replacements for expat positions are not yet coming in.Read More →

In a next step in opening up after the Zero-Covid policies were canceled in December, China will resume issuing all visas to foreigners starting March 15, including tourists, for the first time in three years time, according to the news agency Reuters.Read More →

US investments into China are dropping, shows the latest AmCham survey into the country’s business climate for US companies, reports the South China Morning Post March 2023. And while the number of US companies planning to move out of China is limited, one of the problems hindering investments is a growing reluctance among qualified experts to move to China, the paper reports. New investments have stalled and plans exist to decrease current investments.Read More →

While China is seriously trying to get to terms with the end of the zero-Covid policies since the end of December 2022, international business has not been following suit, according to the Financial Times. International business delegations and other foreign visitors have not yet returned to Shanghai, writes the paper.Read More →

China claims that since the end of the disputed zero-Covid policies at the end of November 2022 till February 2023  200 million of its citizens have been diagnosed with Covid-19, writes AP. Of those, 800,000 critically ill patients have recovered, says the news agency in an article, based on notes from a meeting of the ruling Communist Party’s all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee presided over by President and party leader Xi Jinping. The president claims Covid-19 has been effectively beaten.Read More →

Russian-born China digital marketing guru Ashley Dudarenok has been spending much of her recent professional life in Hong Kong. In December she swapped her Russian passport for a Hong Kong one and became a real Hongkonger. In the South China Morning Post, she explains why.Read More →

The exit of the Zero-Covid policy in China was not the cause of the rampant spread of the virus, or triggered by the protests, but was already spreading unstoppable for a longer time, according to the World Health Organization, writes Reuters. WHO’s emergency director Mike Ryan described the end of the zero-Covid policy as an unavoidable strategic decision on Wednesday 14 December.Read More →

One of China’s leading health experts, Zhong Nanshan, expects China to return to normal after Covid-19 halfway 2023, according to AFP. After the surprise turnaround in early December from the zero-Covid policy, the country is now bracing for a dramatic upsurge in patients, both under quarantine at home and in the hospitals because the Omicron variant is highly transmissible but less mortal, he told state media on Sunday 11 December.Read More →

China’s stringent zero-COVID policies are not able to contain the current omicron variant because of the highly infectious nature, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) in a press conference on Tuesday 17 May. But the WHO also added each country can make its own decisions, even when they do not make sense according to scientific evidence, reports AP.Read More →

By lack of a decent crystal ball, predicting how and when the current Covid-19 restrictions in China will end is tough. But the recent news that China is canceling planned international sporting events for June 2023, is certainly bad news.

Reuters reports half May 2022 the country is canceling the  2023 Asian Football Cup finals due to the COVID-19 situation in the country.Read More →