Well-known Chinese news site NetEase (NASDAQ: NTES) recently reported that the “French Embassy in China” posted in Chinese Weibo and pointed out that China’s Zero Covid policy has had an impact on French companies in China, who provide 570,000 jobs in China. French companies very much welcome the recent 20 measures to optimize the Covid control framework announced by China on November 11, which will greatly reduce the negative impact of pandemic prevention on economic activities and people’s lives. However, the French Chamber of Commerce in China has noticed that since the policy was first announced, the actual implementation results have not met the expectations of French companies in China. The Chamber of Commerce called on the Chinese government to truly implement the 20-measure policy and remove unnecessary and excessive covid restrictions. The Chamber of Commerce reiterated that French companies hope to see a clear strategy formulated in the near future to get out of the Zero Covid policy as soon as possible. China still plays a pivotal role for French companies and a transparent, predictable and fair business environment is essential. The announcement issued by the Chamber indicated that the three major obstacles are: severely restricted Chinese domestic business travel, international travel between China and France is still being restricted, and there is a more and more serious trend of restricting local business activities within a city. The French Embassy Weibo received massive comments from Chinese netizens, mainly to support the Embassy. Some thanked the French for the posting since the Chinese government typically don’t delete Embassy content to control speech.
Source: NetEase, November 25, 2022
https://www.163.com/dy/article/HMVR6U2K0534B9EY.html