Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday met with a group of global business leaders in Beijing in an effort to boost investor sentiment as rising tariffs fuel uncertainty about the economy and international trade.
Xi sat down with representatives of international industrial and business firms at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing yesterday morning, Xinhua news agency reported, without elaborating.
They included Rajesh Subramaniam of FedEx Corp, Bill Winters of Standard Chartered PLC, Paul Hudson of Sanofi SA, Pascal Soriot of AstraZeneca PLC and Miguel Angel Lopez Borrego of ThyssenKrupp AG.
Photo: Reuters
Officials in attendance included Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅), Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao (王文濤) and Minister of Finance Lan Foan (藍佛安).
After the meeting, Xi said in front of reporters that seven business representatives shared their views that the Chinese government would “study and consider.”
“All of you are welcome to keep your lines of communication with us,” Xi said, praising the attendees for contributing to China’s growth and creating job opportunities.
“Foreign businesses are important participants in China’s modernization,” he added.
Slowing economic expansion and mounting geopolitical tensions have hurt the appeal of investing in the world’s second-biggest economy, with inbound investment tumbling last year to its lowest in more than three decades.
More headwinds might come next month, when the US is set to complete a review of Beijing’s compliance with the phase-one trade deal struck during US President Donald Trump’s first term and impose reciprocal duties globally.
Chinese Premier Li Qiang (李強) on Sunday said that the country is prepared for “shocks that exceed expectations,” as the government targets an ambitious growth target of about 5 percent this year.
Economists estimate that Beijing would need to unleash trillions of yuan in stimulus to hit that goal if tariffs surge.
China’s interaction with the top business figures underscores the message it has been sending that the nation is open for business — contrasting itself with Trump’s more protectionist “America first” policies.
Beijing is also trying to cast itself as a supporter of private enterprise, illustrated by Xi’s meeting last month with entrepreneurs such as Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (阿里巴巴) cofounder Jack Ma (馬雲).
Many global chief executive officers had traveled to China for the annual China Development Forum and the Boao Forum for Asia, which concluded yesterday.
The meeting marked an upgrade from earlier years when China’s No. 2 official met executives on the sidelines of the China Development Forum, although Xi broke precedent last year to meet with a group of US businesspeople.
US Senator Steve Daines, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, met with several Chinese leaders, including Li, earlier this week, in what has been seen as an initial step to set up a summit between Xi and Trump.
Several US firms have already been caught in the crossfire of deteriorating bilateral relations.
Chinese authorities summoned Walmart Inc executives this month over reports it asked suppliers to bear rising costs incurred by increased US tariffs.
Beijing earlier placed Calvin Klein owner PVH Corp and US gene sequencing company Illumina Inc onto a so-called blacklist of entities as US tariffs took effect.
Intel Corp chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) is expected to meet with Taiwanese suppliers next month in conjunction with the opening of the Computex Taipei trade show, supply chain sources said on Monday. The visit, the first for Tan to Taiwan since assuming his new post last month, would be aimed at enhancing Intel’s ties with suppliers in Taiwan as he attempts to help turn around the struggling US chipmaker, the sources said. Tan is to hold a banquet to celebrate Intel’s 40-year presence in Taiwan before Computex opens on May 20 and invite dozens of Taiwanese suppliers to exchange views
Application-specific integrated circuit designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原) yesterday said that although revenue this quarter would decline 30 percent from last quarter, it retained its full-year forecast of revenue growth of 100 percent. The company attributed the quarterly drop to a slowdown in customers’ production of chips using Faraday’s advanced packaging technology. The company is still confident about its revenue growth this year, given its strong “design-win” — or the projects it won to help customers design their chips, Faraday president Steve Wang (王國雍) told an online earnings conference. “The design-win this year is better than we expected. We believe we will win
Chizuko Kimura has become the first female sushi chef in the world to win a Michelin star, fulfilling a promise she made to her dying husband to continue his legacy. The 54-year-old Japanese chef regained the Michelin star her late husband, Shunei Kimura, won three years ago for their Sushi Shunei restaurant in Paris. For Shunei Kimura, the star was a dream come true. However, the joy was short-lived. He died from cancer just three months later in June 2022. He was 65. The following year, the restaurant in the heart of Montmartre lost its star rating. Chizuko Kimura insisted that the new star is still down
While China’s leaders use their economic and political might to fight US President Donald Trump’s trade war “to the end,” its army of social media soldiers are embarking on a more humorous campaign online. Trump’s tariff blitz has seen Washington and Beijing impose eye-watering duties on imports from the other, fanning a standoff between the economic superpowers that has sparked global recession fears and sent markets into a tailspin. Trump says his policy is a response to years of being “ripped off” by other countries and aims to bring manufacturing to the US, forcing companies to employ US workers. However, China’s online warriors
RSS