After a harrowing year of rolling lockdowns and business closures amid a new wave of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2022, the Chinese government declared 2023 as “the year of investing in China”.

But things turned out quite differently. Net foreign direct investment (FDI) into China tanked 82 per cent over the previous year to US$33 billion (S$44.5 billion), according to the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, the lowest level since 1993 and less than 10 per cent of the peak of US$344 billion reached in 2021.