This is how Xi plays footsie with the top managers of the US giants
Xi Jinping meets the executives of large American companies in Beijing and utters friendly words towards the United States. China is in economic difficulty and needs foreign investment. All the details
China's President Xi Jinping met with executives from several large U.S. companies in Beijing on Wednesday. For the occasion he used a very friendly tone, saying for example that China and America are inseparable despite their differences, “which always exist because people are different, even in a family. We seek common ground on the most important issues,” he added, “reserving differences for minor ones.”
WHO WAS AT THE MEETING WITH XI
Present at the meeting with Xi – the occasion was this year's China Development Forum, held last Sunday – were, among others, the CEOs of Blackstone (Stephen Schwarzman), Qualcomm (Cristiano Amon) and MGM Resorts International (William Hornbuckle), as well as the president of FedEx (Rajesh Subramaniam) and the US-China Business Council (ex-diplomat Craig Allen). The US-China Business Council is the organization that represents the interests of companies doing business in China: its members include Amazon, Apple, Ernst & Young, Intel, JPMorgan, Pzifer and Walmart.
As Nikkei Asia writes, it is rare for Xi to meet foreign business leaders: in his place, it is usually Prime Minister Li Qiang. But Li's absence had already been noticed during the National People's Congress (Chinese parliament, to simplify) in February, and was probably underlining a decrease in his role in the government, increasingly under the direct control of Xi.
THE MEETING WITH MARK RUTTE AND THE ASML AFFAIR
In addition to the businessmen, Xi also met with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte. In addition to praising the "high quality" of imports from the Netherlands, the Chinese president spent some words criticizing the " decoupling or breaking of supply chains", that is, the Western tendency to reduce dependence on China in the most critical value chains for the economy and national security (semiconductors and clean energy, for example).
“Creating scientific and technological barriers to cut the industrial chain will only bring division and confrontation,” Xi said, probably alluding to the export controls imposed by the Netherlands on ASML, a Dutch company that produces highly advanced machinery for the production of microchips. The Dutch government's decision is part of the broader restrictions applied by the United States on the trade of critical technologies to China, aimed at preventing Beijing from accessing key components for industrial and military development.
In words, Rutte seemed to agree with Xi, arguing that decoupling is not a priority for the Netherlands.
CHINA NEEDS FOREIGN INVESTMENT
The overall friendly tones that Xi has reserved for America – China's main political and economic rival – are probably an attempt to restore the confidence of foreign investors in the second largest economy in the world, which is experiencing a phase of difficulty and a slowdown in growth. of which the crisis in the real estate sector is the most evident symptom.
Official data say that in 2023 foreign direct investments in China – 33 billion dollars in total – collapsed by 90 percent compared to the record levels of 2021, reaching the lowest level since 1993. Among the causes, in addition to geopolitical tensions with Washington , there is also the tightening of government control over companies.
Wednesday's meeting between Xi and American leaders was preceded, a week ago, by a liberalization plan aimed precisely at attracting foreign capital and workers. The president said China will take "important measures to deepen reform" and develop a "world-class business environment."
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/xi-jinping-riunione-imprenditori-americani-cina/ on Thu, 28 Mar 2024 08:48:22 +0000.