China Is Becoming a Problem for Investors

China has long been a source of stock-market optimism. Now it is turning into a reason for worry.

Investors started the year by pouring money into China-focused funds, a bet that the end of Covid-19 restrictions would unleash supercharged spending in the world’s second-largest economy. Instead, a stubborn lack of growth and escalating political tensions with the U.S. are fostering poor returns and uncertainty about the future.