China’s Xi meets US business representatives in Beijing

BEIJING (AFP): Chinese President Xi Jinping met Wednesday with representatives of US businesses, state media reported, as Beijing seeks to woo foreign investment and reassure American firms in the face of a slowing economy.

“On the morning of March 27, President Xi Jinping met with representatives from the US business community… at (Beijing’s) Great Hall of the People,” state broadcaster CCTV said.

“Before the meeting began, Xi Jinping took a group photograph with them,” it said.

State media did not name who was at the meeting, which it said was also attended by representatives of academia.

The Wall Street Journal, citing sources, reported last week that a meeting between Xi and the presidents of US business lobby groups was in the works.

The meeting also comes a few days after the China Development Forum in Beijing, which was attended by Apple CEO Tim Cook and other top executives.

“I think China’s really opening up, and I’m so happy to be here,” the CEO of the tech giant told a reporter from CGTN, according to a video posted on one of the state-run broadcaster’s social media accounts.

Chinese officials have struggled for months to kickstart economic growth as they battle a range of headwinds, including a prolonged property-sector crisis, soaring youth unemployment and a global slowdown that is hammering demand for Chinese goods.

– Lower growth target –

GDP growth rates in China have been trending downwards for years, and Beijing this month set an annual target of “around five percent” — significantly lower than the breakneck expansion rates that powered the country’s meteoric rise to prosperity.

The crucial China-US economic relationship has also suffered as the two powers clash on flashpoint issues from technology and trade to human rights as well as over the self-ruled island of Taiwan and the South China Sea.

US firms in China have increasingly complained about what they see as an unfair business environment, with limited protection for intellectual property and preferential treatment afforded to domestic competitors.

Those fears were compounded last year by a broad crackdown on US consulting firms operating in China.

Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo warned in August that business in China could become “too risky” for US firms without changes to the regulatory environment.

China has rebuffed those fears, touting its openness to foreign investment and promising to do more to help them.

Last November, Xi spoke to US business leaders following a summit with President Joe Biden in San Francisco, promising to “build more bridges and pave more roads for people-to-people interactions”.