China Turns on the Charm for Foreigners but Its Allure Has Faded


中国政府正在增加国际航班并放宽签证规定，但企业高管和外交官表示，重建信任需要很长一段时间。


上海曾是外国人云集的金融中心，但近年来这里外籍人士的数量有所下降。

为了摆脱多年来因疫情而陷入的孤立，中国政府正在发动魅力攻势，希望吸引外国人回归。中国眼下所处的孤立境地正在削弱这一全球第二大经济体的经济。 6park.com
China’s government is rolling out a charm offensive to lure back foreigners, part of an effort to shed years of pandemic-induced isolation that is sapping the world’s second-largest economy. 6park.com
    
但目前这波魅力攻势可能更难奏效。 6park.com
It’s a tougher sell than it used to be. 6park.com
    
近几个月来，中国简化了商务旅客和游客的签证手续，降低了签证费用，甚至对一些国家实行免签。中国还延续了个税优惠政策，以提高外籍人士来华生活的吸引力。中国国务院总理李强在本月早些时候举行的全国人大会议上承诺，将采取更多措施重树“投资中国”这一品牌。 6park.com
In recent months, China has made it simpler and cheaper for business travelers and tourists to get visas, and scrapped visa requirements for some entirely. It has extended tax incentives to make life for foreign residents more appealing. Chinese Premier Li Qiang pledged further moves to rebuild the “Invest-in-China” brand at the country’s annual legislative meetings earlier this month.  6park.com
    
这波魅力攻势表明，中国在努力恢复与全球各国的联系，而这种联系曾经助力中国经济保持了数十年创纪录的增长，但随着习近平将安全放在首位，中国政府在疫情期间中断了与其他国家的联系。 6park.com
The campaign marks an effort to restore the global ties that helped power China’s decades of record-breaking growth, which Beijing severed during the pandemic as Chinese leader Xi Jinping elevated security above all else. 6park.com
    
如今中国试图重新吸引外国人回归，但时过境迁，不仅国内经济在放缓，政府还收紧了对社会的控制。在华盛顿，越来越多的人对与中国打交道持怀疑态度。受中国的动态清零政策和全国范围的反间谍运动影响，对中国政府的不信任感挥之不去。 6park.com
Now China is trying to regain its allure for foreigners in a different era, with a slowing economy and tightening social controls. A rising chorus in Washington portrays engagement with China as suspect. And there is lingering distrust in the country’s government stemming from the zero-Covid policies and a nationwide anti-espionage campaign. 6park.com
    
一位美国企业高管说，2023年年中发生的一件事让他心神不宁，那天傍晚，九名警察出现在他在北京的家门口，要求检查他的护照并确认他的雇主，其中一名警察还用智能手机录下了双方互动的过程。他说，这些警察没有说明为什么会出现在他家门口。 6park.com
One U.S. business executive said he was unsettled in mid-2023 when a group of nine police officers showed up at his door in Beijing one evening, demanding to examine his passport and confirm his employer, as one of the officers recorded the interaction with a smartphone. The officers didn’t give a reason for the visit, he said.  6park.com
    
这位高管说：“要恢复在过去几年中受损的信任还需很长一段时日。” 6park.com
“It’ll take a long time to restore the broken trust over the last couple of years,” the executive said.



根据国家移民管理局的数据，去年中国向外国人签发各类居留证件71.1万人次，比2019年疫情前下降15%。包括商务旅客在内的短期游客数量降幅更大，同期下降三分之二。 6park.com
China handed out 711,000 residence permits to foreigners last year, down 15% from prepandemic 2019, according to the National Immigration Administration. Short-term visitor numbers, which include business travelers, dropped even more, falling two-thirds over the same period. 6park.com
    
上海面临的挑战尤为明显。作为金融中心的上海是个熠熠生辉的城市，曾经聚集了形形色色的外国人。官方数据显示，2022年，新增外国人来华工作许可数从2020年的约7万份下降到5万份。 6park.com
The severity of the challenge is apparent in Shanghai, a glimmering financial center that once teemed with foreigners of all stripes. The number of new foreign worker permits fell to 50,000 in 2022 from roughly 70,000 in 2020, according to official data. 6park.com
   
在新冠封控措施迫使许多外国人离开近两年后，这座城市仍难以恢复昔日的国际大都会风采。 6park.com
The city is still struggling to recover its cosmopolitan flair nearly two years after a Covid lockdown persuaded many expatriates to flee. 6park.com
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在上海经营一家爱尔兰式小酒馆的爱尔兰人Graeme Allen说：“我们周末去餐馆和商场时，那边通常只能看到我一个白人。”他说，即使疫情之前，随着企业转而招聘本地人才，外国人的数量已经减少，但对许多人来说，疫情封控措施是压死骆驼的最后一根稻草。 6park.com
“When we go out to restaurants and malls on the weekends, I’m usually the only white guy,” said Graeme Allen, an Irish national who runs an Irish-themed bistro in the city. The number of expats had been dwindling even before the pandemic as companies shifted hiring to local talent, but the Covid lockdowns were the last straw for many, he said. 6park.com
    
Allen等人表示，可以肯定的是，近来外国游客似乎有所增加，许多人是来参加在中国恢复举办的国际展览会的。限制中外往来的一个主要瓶颈也有望很快缓解。疫情期间中国航空公司每周往返中美两国的航班数量急剧下降，但到今年3月底，这些航班可能会从目前的35架次增加到50架次。 6park.com
To be sure, Allen and others say there seems to have been an uptick in foreign visitors recently, with many arriving to attend international exhibitions that have reopened in China. A major bottleneck is also expected to ease soon with the number of weekly round-trip flights by Chinese carriers between the U.S. and China, which plummeted during the pandemic, set to increase to 50 at the end of March from 35 currently.


中国国务院总理李强在本月早些时候的人大会议上承诺要促进外商投资。

不过，这与2020年之前的情形相比也只是个零头。现任及前任驻外人员、外交官和商业顾问表示，即使大幅增加往返航线，也无法解决那些根本性的变化，而正是这些根本性变化让外国对中国的兴趣下降。 6park.com
Still, those flights are a fraction of the number prior to 2020. And even a significant increase in round-trip routes won’t address the fundamental changes discouraging foreign interest in China, say current and former expatriates, diplomats and business consultants.  6park.com
   
曾几何时中国被全世界视为遍地都是机遇的国度，上述趋势表明，中国的境况正在急剧逆转。十年前，北京和上海等城市还属于世界上最受外籍人士欢迎的目的地之列。在中国经济繁荣的年代，留学生涌入中国大学学习普通话，许多人留下来为渴求进入中国的跨国公司牵线搭桥，并因此获得丰厚的收入。如今，许多跨国公司着手将业务迁到中国之外，以实现多元化。 6park.com
The trend marks a stark reversal for China, once seen around the world as a land of opportunity. A decade ago, cities such as Beijing and Shanghai ranked among the world’s most popular destinations for expatriates. During the country’s boom years, students flocked to Chinese universities to learn Mandarin, many staying behind to pursue lucrative careers as bridge builders for eager multinationals. Now, many multinationals have moved to diversify their operations away from China. 6park.com
    
驻上海的供应链顾问Cameron Johnson说：“如果你是一个有家庭的外国人，并希望发展自己的事业，你就不再需要留在中国，因为现在你的目的地已经是东南亚、印度或中东了。” 6park.com
“If you’re a foreigner with a family and looking to grow your career, you no longer need to be in China, now that destination is Southeast Asia, India or the Middle East,” said Cameron Johnson, a supply-chain consultant in Shanghai. 6park.com
   
人走了，钱也跟着走了。中国商务部1月份表示，去年中国实际使用外资金额同比下降8%，约为1,570亿美元，这是10年来首次下降。中国渐渐被视为风险的一个源头。 6park.com
As people have departed, so has money. Foreign investment flows into China dropped 8% to about $157 billion last year, the first decline in 10 years, China’s commerce ministry said in January. China is increasingly seen as a source of risk. 6park.com
    
“过去，中国的机会很多。想要上进的高管都争着来中国，”Covington & Burling's Public Policy Practice的高级顾问Sean Stein说。Covington & Burling's就监管和法律风险向企业提供咨询。现在，“人们看不到来中国有什么好处，”他说。 6park.com
“Back in the day, China was the place where things happened. Upwardly mobile executives were fighting to come to China,” said Sean Stein, a senior adviser at Covington & Burling’s Public Policy Practice, which advises companies on regulatory and legal risks. Now, he said, “people don’t see that there’s an upside.”


随着中国经济增长乏力，吸引外国人才和资金对上海等城市来说变得越来越重要。


上海的一座加油站

中国有关部门最近对总部位于纽约的尽职调查公司美思明智集团(Mintz Group)北京办事处追加了一倍的罚款；在北京办事处去年遭遇的一次突击搜查中，该公司的当地员工被拘留，此事震动了在华外企圈子。有关部门指责美思明智未报经批准取得涉外统计调查资格便从事涉外统计调查活动，美思明智对此予以反驳。 6park.com
Chinese authorities recently doubled a fine imposed on the Beijing arm of New York-based due-diligence firm Mintz Group, whose local staff were detained in an office raid last year that rattled the foreign business community. The government accuses Mintz of conducting “foreign-related statistical investigations” without approval, an allegation the company disputes. 6park.com
    
经济学家表示，外国高管可以带来中国仍然需要的先进知识和技能。在中国经济受困于增长乏力和房地产市场低迷的问题，中国政府努力恢复人们对中国经济的信心之际，外国资本和投资者的兴趣已变得越来越重要。 6park.com
Economists say that foreign executives bring advanced knowledge and skills that China still needs. Meanwhile, foreign capital and investor interest have grown increasingly important as the government scrambles to restore confidence in an economy struggling with sluggish growth and a property-market downturn.  6park.com
   
商界人士表示，对跨国公司来说，如果无法说服高管同意被派驻到中国，可能导致在华运营与总部脱节，还可能加大在中国维系公司价值观的难度。一些长期驻外的人士说，从长远来看，外国如果对中国缺乏兴趣，可能有损为中国与外界搭桥牵线的群体的规模，从而加深不信任和误解。 6park.com
For multinationals, the inability to persuade executives to be stationed in China can lead to disconnects with headquarters and struggles ensuring a company’s values are maintained in the country, business people say. In the longer term, longtime expatriates say, the lack of foreign interest could deplete the population of bridge builders between China and the world and deepen mistrust and misunderstandings. 6park.com
   
有关在中国居住或到访中国的外国人的官方数据并不明确。中国政府上一次公布长期居住的外籍人员详细数据是在2021年，当时中国发布了每十年一次的人口普查结果。 6park.com
Official data on foreigners living in or visiting China are murky. The last time the government released detailed figures on long-term foreign residents was 2021, when the country published its once-a-decade census. 6park.com
   
即便如此，其他来源的数据仍显示，来自世界上最大一些经济体（在中国有大量投资的国家）的外籍人员近年来已减少。 6park.com
Even so, data from other sources show that expatriates from some of the world’s biggest economies—countries with significant investment footprints in China—have dwindled in recent years. 6park.com
    
政府数据显示，2023年，在中国登记的韩国人较2019年减少了30%，至21.6万人。韩国人一直是居住在中国的最大外国人群体之一。官方数据显示，在华登记的日本公民同期减少了13%，降至10.2万人。 6park.com
In 2023, the number of registered South Koreans, traditionally among the biggest foreign communities in China, fell 30% from 2019 to 216,000, government data show. Registered Japanese citizens in China declined by 13% in the same period to 102,000, according to official figures.  6park.com
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根据英国商会(British Chamber of Commerce)的估计，在中国的英国人比疫情前减少了一半以上，至约1.6万人。英国大使馆表示没有进行过统计。 6park.com
British nationals in China more than halved from prepandemic levels to around 16,000, according to estimates from the British Chamber of Commerce in China. The British Embassy said it doesn’t keep a tally.  6park.com
    
美国大使馆发言人说，没有追踪在华公民人数。不过该发言人说，在中国的成人护照更新需求与疫情前相比大幅下降。这是反映在海外的美国公民人数的一个指标。 6park.com
A U.S. Embassy spokesperson said it doesn’t track citizen numbers in China. Even so, demand for adult passport renewals, one indicator of the number of U.S. citizens present in locations overseas, sharply decreased in China versus prepandemic levels, the spokesperson said.


本月晚些时候，往返北京等中国城市与美国的每周航班数量将有所增加。

美国政府的举措在一定程度上抑制了对华接触。自3月以来，美国国务院一直将中国列入“重新考虑旅行”名单，理由是中国存在被拘留以及随意执行当地法律的风险。与此同时，美国国会对美中商业关系的审视越来越严格。 6park.com
The U.S. government has played a role in discouraging foreign engagement with China. The State Department has kept China on its “reconsider travel” list since March, citing the risk of detention and arbitrary enforcement of local laws. Meanwhile, American business ties to China have come under increasing scrutiny in Congress. 6park.com
    
去年7月份以来，中国已经对包括法国和德国在内的15个国家的游客实行免签政策。中国还承诺打破跨国公司面临的市场壁垒，放宽对跨境数据流动的限制，而后者正是外国公司的一大痛点。 6park.com
China has scrapped tourist-visa requirements for 15 countries, including France and Germany, since July. The country has also vowed to break down market barriers for multinationals and ease up on restrictions over cross-border data flows, a major pain point for foreign firms.  6park.com
   
克莱蒙特麦肯纳学院(Claremont McKenna College)的中国问题与政治学教授裴敏欣说，中国政府可以通过稳定涉及该国的地缘政治紧张局势来减缓中西方关系的疏离，但考虑到最近的经济脱钩趋势，这种人员外流的情况不太可能扭转。 6park.com
Beijing can slow the unraveling of ties between China and the West by stabilizing the geopolitical tensions surrounding the country, but the recent trend toward economic decoupling makes reversing the outflow unlikely, said Minxin Pei, a professor of China and politics at Claremont McKenna College.  6park.com
    
裴敏欣说：“人员外流是会自我强化的，因为如果你的供应商或主要客户离开，你就必须离开。” 6park.com
“An exodus has its own self-reinforcing logic, because you must leave if your supplier or main customer is leaving,” Pei said.