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SHANGHAI—Thousands of China-based U.S. and other foreign business executives remain stranded outside the country due to coronavirus-related travel restrictions, leading some to give up hope of returning and posing operational challenges for their companies.
The travel disruption due to public-health concerns matters not just for business but also for geopolitics, U.S. business leaders say. With tensions between the U.S. and China at their worst in decades, the American business community—traditionally a buffer in conflict between the two sides—risks being hollowed out by the travel freeze.
“Losing big parts of the American business community in China will erode that goodwill,” said Ker Gibbs, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai. Mr. Gibbs said the U.S. stands to lose influence and suffer economically if its corporate footprint in China shrinks permanently.
By mid-August, more than 1,000 U.S. businesspeople based in the financial hub of Shanghai, not counting family dependents, were stuck overseas, according to Mr. Gibbs. Thousands more Americans living in other parts of China have also been marooned abroad.
Altogether around 250,000 foreign professionals normally based in China remain stranded outside the country, according to an estimate by the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China.
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