SHANGHAI, Sept 23 (Reuters) – US companies’ optimism about business conditions in China has recovered to hit three-year highs even though the firms have reservations about Beijing’s COVID-19 policy, an annual survey showed on Thursday. Beijing’s wide-ranging crackdown on companies has also unnerved US firms, an American industry lobby executive said. By contrast, in 2021, 10% of respondent companies described themselves as “pessimistic” about their five-year outlook, compared to 18% and 21% of respondents in 2020 and 2019, respectively. But firms expressed reservations toward some Chinese policy in the aftermath of COVID-19, especially with respect to hiring labour, the survey said. “Further hindering our members, many regulatory changes were enacted after our survey closed.
