On 5th May, the European Chamber, in partnership with Roland Berger, released a survey on the impact that China’s COVID-19 policy and Russia’s war in Ukraine are having on European business in China. The results show that both factors are creating severe challenges to European business operations, with logistics suffering the most overall. Significantly, as a result of China’s COVID-19 policy, 23% of respondents are now considering shifting current or planned investments out of China to other markets—more than double the number that were considering doing so at the beginning of 2022, and the highest proportion in a decade—and 7% are considering the same due to the war in Ukraine.

The introduction of more stringent COVID-19 containment measures in 2022, with China imposing full or partial lockdowns in at least 45 cities, is causing massive uncertainty for businesses. Three quarters of respondents report the measures have negatively impacted their operations, most acutely on logistics/warehousing, business travel and the ability to conduct face-to-face meetings, which have had a negative impact for 94%, 97% and 94% of respondents respectively.

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