Chinese President Xi Jinping met with US business leaders at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing as the government seeks to attract foreign investors back to the country and international companies seek assurances over new regulations, The New Daily reports.
Beijing wants to speed up growth in the world’s second-largest economy this year after foreign direct investment in China fell eight per cent in 2023 as investor concerns grew over an anti-espionage law, travel bans and raids on consultancies and due diligence firms.
Because of Xi’s increasing focus on national security, many companies don’t know where they might be crossing the line, even as Chinese leaders make public statements to overseas investors. Xi said, according to state media:
China’s development has gone through all sorts of difficulties and challenges to get to where it is today. In the past, (China) did not collapse because of a “China collapse theory” and it will also not peak now because of a “China peak theory.”
Stephen Schwarzman, co-founder and CEO of private equity firm Blackstone, Raj Subramaniam, head of US delivery giant FedEx, and Cristiano Amon, head of chip maker Qualcomm, were part of a US contingent of about 20 people.
The audience with Xi, organised by the National Committee on US-China Relations, the US-China Business Council and the Asia Society think tank, lasted about 90 minutes, according to a source with direct knowledge of the situation.
China and the US are gradually resuming contacts after relations between the two economic superpowers plummeted to their lowest level in years, clashing over trade policy, the future of democratic Taiwan and territorial claims in the South China Sea.
The meeting was held in the East Hall of the Great People’s Congress, reserved for important events. Attendees sat in a square shape around a large flower installation in red, orange and green colours, as shown in a video published by state media.
The audience with Xi followed Premier Li Qiang’s failure to meet with invited foreign CEOs at the China Development Forum in Beijing on 24-25 March, raising concerns about the transparency of the world’s second-largest economy. The opportunity to exchange views with Beijing’s second-ranking leader has been a key element of the summit in previous years. Wednesday’s meeting was a follow-up to a November dinner with US leaders in San Francisco, where Xi received a standing ovation.
