BEIJING ¨C Chinese beef hotpot restaurant chain Baheli, which makes only a third of the revenue it earned before the COVID-19 pandemic, has no intention to resume its expansion, even if authorities bring new infections to zero.
The problem, founder Lin Haiping says, is that consumers would not regain their confidence in a hurry, as China¡¯s stubborn pursuit of its ¡°COVID zero¡± strategy, against a global trend of living with the virus, has upended their lives.
¡°All business plans are postponed,¡± said Lin, who opened his first restaurant in 2008 in the southern city of Shantou and quickly expanded to almost 200 outlets across China before closing down a quarter of them due to COVID-19
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