China’s stimulus policy: why leadership, foreign investors can’t see eye to eye

For countless foreigners, their investment strategy over the past two years was as easy as ABC.

“Anything but China”, became an increasingly common mantra and mindset, often abbreviated in everyday discourse to “ABC”. Trade publications and consultants warned there was too much risk and too little upside as the world’s second-largest economy sputtered and struggled to regain its footing after the pandemic.

But two months ago, that thinking was challenged by what appeared to be a sharp U-turn in China’s economic policies. And in the weeks that followed, hope arose that national-level changes could sustain a long-awaited bull run while stamping out the ABC ethos.

All the while, anxious foreign investors continue to wait for China’s trickle of stimulus measures to disperse the economic storm clouds and reinvigorate the market.