After many years of attracting foreign capital to China markets, President Xi Jinping is now faced with the risk of an unpleasant period of financial deglobalization, Bloomberg reports. Investors point to one main reason: Xi’s own policy.

Capital owners who were once enticed by China’s high revenues and huge technological companies now say that the reasons to avoid the country outweigh the incentives to invest. They refer to everything: from unpredictable regulatory campaigns to economic damage caused by strict policy on Covid-19, not to mention the growth risks associated with the shaky real estate market, as well as the proximity of Xi with Putin.

All this marks a dramatic turn for the market that has evolved as a magnet for investors from all over the world, the role that seemed to be the fate of China as the second largest economy in the world.

“The supertanker of Western capital is starting to turn away from China,” said Matt Smith of Ruffer LLP, a $31 billion investment firm that recently shut its Hong Kong office after more than a decade because of shrinking demand for on-the-ground equity research. “It’s just easier to put China aside for now when you see no end in sight from Covid Zero and the return of geopolitical risk.”

The foreign presence in the modern capital markets of China has increased significantly after Xi became president in 2013. The government carved out channels to let capital flow in, including stock and bond trading links via Hong Kong, and pushed for the inclusion of yuan-denominated assets in major global benchmarks. The goal was to encourage investment inflows, fund private enterprise and energize the economy while retaining significant control over capital flowing out.

But Xi’s government showed little regard for global investors last year when it unleashed a series of crackdowns on the country’s most profitable companies. The result was distrust and confusion over the Communist Party’s goals, as well as punishing losses for shareholders. Wariness toward Chinese assets born during the trade war with the US also increased this year after Russia attacked Ukraine and as Xi insisted on pursuing a Covid-Zero strategy that’s been abandoned by virtually every other country.

Instead of discussing when to buy cheap Chinese assets, discussions between global investors are now more focused on how much to reduce the risks. London Hedge Fund reduced his long positions in China to one due to pressure from US clients, said a person who declined to be named discussing internal business. A Zurich-based investment manager said some European pension funds and charities no longer want China in their portfolios because of rising geopolitical and governance risks.