Elsewhere, companies are increasingly voicing frustration about investment barriers in sectors from automotive to finance, while China subsidises domestic businesses.

The EU business chamber issued an annual report on Tuesday saying companies were “suffering from accumulated ‘promise fatigue’” as the government had yet to follow through on pledges to open the market.

And while Liaoning is more welcoming, Kumpfert said that after setting up shop, businesses in Shenyang faced similar obstacles, including lengthy waits for permits and “unclear” regulations.

Settling in China can also come at a price: at least a fifth of EU companies said they had to share their technology in exchange for market access in the aerospace, machinery, environment, auto, utilities and primary energy industries.

Still, the chamber has observed an uptick in foreign entrepreneurs arriving in Shenyang in recent years.

Businesses that specialise in renewable energy, tourism, agriculture or advanced technology were well positioned to succeed in Shenyang as the city addresses pollution and undergoes a “painful restructuring process”, Kumpfert said.

The Liaoning Pilot Free Trade Zone was launched earlier this year, and construction continues in the 48-square-kilometre Sino-German Intelligent Equipment Manufacturing Park in Shenyang, which hosts BMW, Siemens and BASF.

The city’s Bureau of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation said data on foreign investment was not immediately available.

China’s northeast has long relied on state-owned enterprises plagued with severe overcapacity in heavy industries that have crippled the economy, costing thousands of jobs.

Liaoning was the only province in the country that was officially in recession in 2016, with its economy contracting by 2.5 per cent. Its government also admitted to faking economic growth figures from 2011 to 2014.

“All these government projects have ignored principles of supply and demand and created all these problems,” said Jason Lee, a director of business development for Eastern America, which bought the land from the city to build the Shenyang American Industrial Park.

“Nowadays, there is more government support for foreign businesses here. There’s a lot to catch up on, but now they want to work with us as a team,” he said, adding that city officials sometimes accompanied him to meetings to woo foreign clients.

A Shenyang car insulation factory manager, Li, said he was pinning his hopes on foreign capital to help the region.

“If more people come and invest, then the whole environment will improve. Employment, revenue, and other aspects will all get better,” said Li, who declined to give his first name because he was not authorised to speak to the media.

But at the Shenyang German Sino-Service Centre, most of the offices in a new building were recently empty, showing that the process can still be slow.

Wolfgang Wagner, the centre’s chief operating officer, said it was not out of lack of interest. Two dozen foreign companies had applied to join but they had struggled to get legal permits to allow them to rent in a government-owned building, he said.

“First we thought they could move in 2018. Now it’s not going to be until 2019.”