The pandemic’s effects on global supply chains boosted the profile of several emerging Asian nations as businesses worked to become less reliant on China. China’s faltering real estate sector, sputtering economy and increasing geopolitical risk have helped accelerate this trend.

Indeed, foreign direct investment in China dropped by more than 5 percent in the first eight months of 2023, according to China’s official Ministry of Commerce. Even as there are signs of stabilisation in China’s economy, the International Monetary Fund sees China’s GDP growth slowing to about 3.5 percent over the medium term.

US firms in China are the least optimistic they have been in a quarter century about China’s five-year outlook, according to a September article in the South China Morning Post. In a recent survey by the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai, 40 percent of US firms said they were shifting their supply chains and investments elsewhere, 6 percent mor