China offers ‘safe' place for investment, Xi tells execs amid trade war

Washington Post

31-03-2025

Chinese leader Xi Jinping gathered dozens of foreign business executives Friday for a rare in-person meeting and urged them to see China as an 'ideal, safe and promising' place to invest amid President Donald Trump's destabilizing trade conflicts.
Xi's meeting with over 40 international executives and trade association heads capped a week-long charm offensive in which Chinese officials promised to be friendly to business — and took swipes at 'rising protectionism' from the Trump administration.
'China was, is and will be an ideal, safe and promising investment destination for foreign investors,' Xi told the gathering, which included leaders from American businesses including Pfizer, FedEx and asset manager Blackstone. 'Going with China is going with opportunities, believing in China is believing in tomorrow, and investing in China is investing in the future.'
The grand meeting room in the Great Hall of the People contained a who's who of multinational firms with extensive operations in China. While Xi has hosted similar meetings before, it is rare for him to bring together so many members of the global business elite at once, or to speak with them so plainly about his hopes for investment.
'I often say that blowing out other people's lights will not make your own light brighter,' Xi said, in an apparent swipe at Trump without naming him directly.
Executives from the United States included Albert Bourla, CEO of pharma giant Pfizer; Raj Subramaniam, president of logistics provider FedEx; and Stephen A. Schwarzman, chairman of Blackstone. Notably, Apple CEO Tim Cook, who was also in China this week, did not attend the Beijing meeting.
Subramaniam was invited to speak, alongside executives from Mercedes-Benz, Hitachi, HSBC and Saudi Aramco, according to the state-run Xinhua News Agency, which summarized their collective remarks as noting that China had 'become an oasis of certainty' against intensifying protectionism.
At two major gatherings of international business executives in the past week — the China Development Forum in Beijing and the 'Asian Davos' Boao Forum on the tropical island of Hainan — Chinese officials tried to reassure companies that they are welcome and can still make money in China.
That message is not new. In Trump's first term, Xi similarly positioned China as the defender of globalization and free trade — only to then launch a sweeping regulatory crackdown that crippled the tech sector and resulted in billions in losses for international investors.
But the Trump administration has slapped duties on allies and rivals alike, and is preparing to impose new tariffs on 15 trade partners next week. Beijing sees an opening to bolster its relationships with multinationals — whether from the United States or its allies in Europe and Asia — to help navigate trade tensions and boost China's slowing economy, analysts said.
'Politically, China hopes that these executives will exert influence on their own governments when they return,' said Xin Qiang, deputy director of the Center for American Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai.
'A large number of American companies have invested and set up factories in China. When they return, they can tell Trump that the tariff war will also hurt American businesses,' Xin said.
It might be a hard sell.
Hanging over Beijing's overtures is an imminent escalation in what threatens to become an all-out trade war with the Trump administration — one that could easily draw in American businesses operating in China.
Beijing has signaled it is open to a deal with Trump, who has promised 'flexibility' in tariff negotiations. But it has also vowed not to bow to pressure and responded immediately when Trump imposed an additional 20 percent in tariffs, taking average U.S. duties on Chinese goods to about 33 percent.
On Sunday, Premier Li Qiang called for 'candid communication' in a meeting with Sen. Steve Daines (R-Montana), a strong Trump supporter who has presented himself as laying the groundwork for a Trump-Xi summit.
Despite Friday's turnout and reportedly upbeat statements from CEOs, China's message of stability and openness has been undercut by its increasing willingness to target international companies in its trade dispute with the Trump administration.
The State Council, or cabinet, on Monday passed an 'anti-foreign sanctions law,' adding another tool to Beijing's sweeping efforts to sharpen weapons of retaliation for trade disputes.
Chinese authorities have sanctioned a growing number of American firms, primarily arms dealers, by placing them on its 'unreliable entities list.' It is also investigating U.S. chipmaker Nvidia for suspected antitrust violations.
During Trump's last trade war with China, the state-run Global Times newspaper threatened similar measures against Apple, Qualcomm and Cisco.
There was little sign of those threats this week as Apple's Cook and Qualcomm's Cristiano Amon were among American chief executives receiving extensive face time with top Chinese officials for economics and trade, including Commerce Minister Wang Wentao, Vice Premier He Lifeng and Premier Li.
American executives have also used the week to underscore their commitment to the world's second-largest economy and show that their businesses are aligned with Xi's priorities.
Cook on Monday launched a $100 million fund to add 550,000 megawatt-hours worth of wind and solar power to the country's already world-beating renewable-energy installations. He then toured the tech hub of Hangzhou, hometown online retail giant Alibaba and artificial intelligence start-up DeepSeek.
There, the Apple CEO received a hero's welcome, with martial arts performances, tea on the shores of scenic West Lake and a tour of Zhejiang University, a leading center of research and innovation, where Cook announced a $4.1 million donation to bolster coding instruction at the institution.
It wasn't only American companies being feted, however.
Beijing has also stepped up outreach to businesses from Europe and Asia in hopes that firms will be more interested in relying on the Chinese market as a bulwark against Trump's unpredictability.
There are early signs that China's efforts to boost outside confidence in its economy are paying off, helped by excitement around technology firms like DeepSeek. That comes after foreign direct investment fell a record 27 percent in 2024 compared with the year before.
Interest in Chinese stocks among European and Asia-Pacific investors has improved significantly, while concerns have fallen to the lowest levels in nearly two years, Lei Meng, an analyst at investment bank UBS, said in a note this week.
'This time, there were more Saudi and European companies, and they were more active to hedge against the risks of Trump 2.0,' said Wang Yiwei, an international relations scholar at Renmin University in Beijing.
'Now, China is a sharp contrast to the United States,' Wang said. 'If America isn't bright, the Global South will be. If the West isn't bright, China will be.'