(NewsNation) — China’s leader, Xi Jinping, may be hoping the personal touch will help stop his country’s financial bleeding caused by foreign corporations “de-risking” from China. Xi is scheduled to meet with more than 85 top corporate executives next week — including at least 30 from the U.S.
The Wall Street Journal reports: Xi’s appearance at the annual China Development Forum in Beijing is an upgrade from the gathering’s traditional host, Premier Lin Qiang. Some analysts believe breaking that tradition is a sign that Xi wants more direct control over how the world’s business leaders view China.
That view has been in decline since the Covid pandemic and the chill in Washington-Beijing relations. That chill became a diplomatic freeze last year when the U.S. shot down what the Air Force said was a Chinese surveillance balloon that drifted across the continental U.S. And recently, Congress is trying to force TikTok to divest itself from Chinese ownership.
Ken Jarrett, a senior adviser at the consulting firm Albright-Stonebridge Group, tells the Journal the CEOs will share with Xi how U.S.-China tensions affect world commerce.
Last November in San Francisco, Xi told a group of western executives he wanted to help ease those tensions but provided no specifics. Many international firms have reduced their investments in China, so-called “de-risking,” as Xi has increased his country’s focus on national security and what it believes are threats from the west.
China’s Ministry of Commerce reported Friday that direct foreign investment in January and February was down by 19.9% compared to a year ago. Foreign investment in 2023 dropped 8% from 2022.
One new proposal for the CEOs’ consideration would, according to the South China Morning Post, “turn research and development and innovative ideas from laboratories and research papers into mass-produced goods.”
Many of those projects are vital to China’s economy, including EV batteries, solar panels and semiconductors. Those high-tech, high-end products are even more important now, as producers of low-end products have turned to cheaper labor markets including India and Vietnam.