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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