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Speaker 1: Our next guest is Stephen Lynch. She's Managing director of

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Speaker 1: the British Chamber of Commerce and China, to discuss business

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Speaker 1: sentiments as China gradually moves to reopen um. Now, Steve,

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Speaker 1: and your report finds business hesimism. Is that a record high?

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Speaker 1: Do you expect that to turn around as the restrictions

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Speaker 1: are getting eased or does the exit from COVID zero

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Speaker 1: presents just a whole new series of new hurdles. I

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Speaker 1: think it presents a whole new series of new hurdles.

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Speaker 1: I think we've just seen a complete you turn in

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Speaker 1: China COVID policy. So, as mentioned, we launched our sentiment

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Speaker 1: survey yesterday. COVID nighting controls are having an enormous negative

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Speaker 1: impact on all aspects of business, so sentiment, revenue projections,

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Speaker 1: investment decisions, offshoring all pointing in a negative direction. And

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Speaker 1: as you mentioned, factually this is the most pessimistic British

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Speaker 1: businesses have ever been. Now, we collected this data over

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Speaker 1: a month ago and a lot has changed, but one

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Speaker 1: thing was very clear. Businesses were at a tipping point.

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Speaker 1: Something needed to be done because this sentiment was was

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Speaker 1: feeding into decision making and it was feeding into action,

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Speaker 1: and we have seen action. We've seen an outpouring of anger,

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Speaker 1: protests on the street that's just unheard of here in China.

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Speaker 1: And this is all due to the breadth of the

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Speaker 1: zero COVID fatigue as well as the social and economic

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Speaker 1: problems that were that we're facing this country. And it

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Speaker 1: was all united around this zero COVID. So we have

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Speaker 1: seen dramatic change in the last few days, new policy measures,

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Speaker 1: which is extremely positive and very welcomed by business. I mean,

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Speaker 1: I will say and I will air on the side

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Speaker 1: of caution because of what is about to happen. COVID

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Speaker 1: is about to happen in this country. So we're just

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Speaker 1: sitting the beginning of the end almost you know, we're

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Speaker 1: moving away from the zero COVID policy to COVID is coming,

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Speaker 1: or should I say, COVID is already here in China. Stephen,

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Speaker 1: extend to your view to include Hong Kong where you are,

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Speaker 1: because we know that there has been a little bit

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Speaker 1: of brain drain. Some of that, yes, may be tied

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Speaker 1: to the National Security Law in Hong Kong. A number

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Speaker 1: of Hong Kongers had the ability to apply to living

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Speaker 1: in the UK under a new visa program. But the

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Speaker 1: extent to which there was brain drain or is brain

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Speaker 1: drain now in Hong Kong. Is Beijing paying attention to

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Speaker 1: that at all? Well, I'm actually currently sitting in Beijing

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Speaker 1: at the moment, but my apologies that the comment no, no

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Speaker 1: no absolute point. So I mean, I've never seen anything

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Speaker 1: anything like this. You know, three years of a very

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Speaker 1: vocal and very harsh policy no COVID, no COVID was

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Speaker 1: allowed in the country and it means if there was

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Speaker 1: one case, a city could be shut down. And so

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Speaker 1: almost overnight this policy has this, this policy has been

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Speaker 1: completely dumped. So no quarantine offices are about open factories, bars, restaurants,

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Speaker 1: no testing. That was the policy for the last three years.

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Speaker 1: There's no testing. You know, this is just complete confusion

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Speaker 1: about what's happened in regards to the messaging, and it

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Speaker 1: all ties back to the shore on economic problems that

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Speaker 1: work that will been caused by this this zero COVID

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Speaker 1: And you know, I will say, you know, if people

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Speaker 1: are confused and they're scared because the exit wave is

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Speaker 1: about to happen, people are going to get sick. People

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Speaker 1: are going to get very sick. And for the last

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Speaker 1: three years here in China, the messaging has been COVID

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Speaker 1: is bad, COVID is one of the most worst things

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Speaker 1: that can happen to you. And now in the last

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Speaker 1: week that is not the case. COVID is no longer

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Speaker 1: serious and you will not get that sick if you

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Speaker 1: get COVID. So there is a lot of confusion. Again,

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Speaker 1: this is a policy, it's a positive step in regards

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Speaker 1: to opening up and an exit strategy. But we're about

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Speaker 1: to face a whole new set of challenges. In three

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Speaker 1: it was an extraordinary one alien and just the space

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Speaker 1: of a few weeks, Stephen, we've got about a minute lift.

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Speaker 1: I just want to refer back to your report that

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Speaker 1: the top three regulatory challenges that you've found for British businesses,

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Speaker 1: though I have nothing to do with COVID, can you

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Speaker 1: tell us about those exactly exactly, So this is not

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Speaker 1: just the COVID issue. China has a long way to

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Speaker 1: restore certainty. There's lots of confusion. China needs to restore

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Speaker 1: confidence for foreign businesses in market. Almost every single business

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Speaker 1: that it got harder to do. Almost every single business

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Speaker 1: said they feel less welcome and this is due to

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Speaker 1: longstanding market access and business environment issues. So they really

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Speaker 1: need to double back down on the opening up and

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Speaker 1: reform agenda, UM and make sure that that foreign businesses,

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Speaker 1: British businesses feel welcome in the market because you know,

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Speaker 1: no longer can it just be market opportunity and market potential.

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Speaker 1: They need to realize that. Yeah, and um, I note

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Speaker 1: that hiring foreign staff and retaining them in China also

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Speaker 1: one of the challenges that you note their Stephen Lynch

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Speaker 1: very firm views. Thank you for joining us on Bloomberg

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Speaker 1: Daybreak Asia. Stephen Lynch is a Managing director of the

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Speaker 1: British Chamber of Commerce in China, discussing the findings of

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Speaker 1: their reporters China moves to a COVID zero environment and

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Speaker 1: the challenges that's presenting for foreign businesses operating the it