U.S. companies, which have led Western investment in China over the past 35 years, are scaling back their expectations and business plans in the face of slowing growth, heightened competition and increased regulatory scrutiny from Beijing. “Clearly, there’s moderating optimism,” said John Frisbie, President of the U.S.-China Business Council. “There’s also a lot of policy uncertainty in the business community.” The Council estimates U.S. business in China is worth about USD350 billion a year, a figure that includes exports, as well as domestic and offshore sales by U.S. affiliates located in China. The market may be growing at about 10% a year, but with China’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth expected to slow to 7.4% this year, the message from executives speaking on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Beijing was that many big investors were holding back on fresh commitments. U.S. foreign direct investment (FDI) for the first nine months of this year declined 24.7%, China’s Commerce Ministry said, while the American Chamber of Commerce in China noted in its annual survey that U.S. firms were “increasingly cautious”. “There are areas where China is clearly set on developing national champions, and in those areas it has made it more difficult for U.S. and Western companies to navigate the regulatory regime,” said Myron Brilliant, Executive Vice President of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. “It’s not as easy a place to do business as we would like it to be.” Many U.S. executives hope that a bilateral investment treaty under negotiation may represent an important step forward, the South China Morning Post reports.