President Xi Jinping, seen on a giant screen, sings the national anthem during a flag-raising ceremony at the Tiananmen Square event on Thursday.Amid rising tensions between the world’s two largest economies, China’s top economic planner held a round-table discussion with more than 60 American companies in a bid to woo foreign investors and restore confidence in the Chinese market following the 20th party congress.
Beijing also expects US companies to “deepen their understanding of China’s latest policies” and “actively integrate into China’s new development plan to ensure the security and stability of the global industrial chain and supply chain”, Gao said. American business representatives at Tuesday’s meeting were from US multinational companies, including Amazon, Apple, General Motors and Micron Technology, plus others from high-end manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, finance, energy, automotive and entertainment firms.
“With its pro-growth policies, market size and liquidity, China will continue to be critical to any multinational’s Asia-Pacific strategy. Despite recent news of offshoring production from China, in practice it’s a challenge to find a substitute for the rapid resource mobilisation and scalability that China offers.
However, China’s ongoing zero-Covid policies; economic and regulatory challenges; and volatile travel restrictions have upended the operations of US businesses in China, plunging their sales forecasts to a 10-year low, according to survey findings published last week by the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai.