Chinese factories launch charm offensive after pandemic isolation

Foreign buyers were initially blocked from visiting China, which only lifted quarantine requirements for arrivals last month. Production was disrupted by rolling lockdowns, rising shipping costs, delayed orders and geopolitical tensions drove clients to seek suppliers elsewhere. China's exports dropped 9.9 per cent year-on-year in dollar terms in December, following an 8.9 per cent fall the month before as global inflation weighed on trade, with price growth and interest rate rises damping demand. Many factories in China's southern and eastern manufacturing heartlands pared back hiring or even closed for weeks at a time last year as COVID-19 swept through the…