Just as European economies are showing signs of stabilizing and the U.S. economy is waking up, some companies are running into obstacles in a market long considered their brightest hope: China. U.S. and European companies invested heavily in recent years to expand in China, seeking to tap into its flourishing middle class and fast economic growth. Since the global recession, China has helped offset the free fall in sales and profits in the euro zone and stagnant revenue in the U.S. But the latest set of quarterly earnings results reveal that for many companies, China has been a drag. While some industries did well, the combination of slower economic growth, plus government crackdowns that have put fresh scrutiny on the way companies win new business, hurt sectors from technology to luxury goods to pharmaceuticals. As a result, the sluggish global sales that persisted through much of the recovery aren’t […]