Chinese President Xi Jinping reassured a group of foreign multinational executives from the United States, Europe, Asia and South America that China is committed to advancing reform and opening-up, saying that investing in China is investing in the future. Xi made the remarks when meeting at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing with more than 40 representatives of the international business community. The meeting was the latest in a series of interactions between high-level Chinese officials and global CEOs, following the China Development Forum (CDF) in Beijing and the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2025, which concluded in Hainan province on March 27. “I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to all the foreign enterprises that have participated in and supported China’s development,” Xi told the executives, whose businesses cover areas such as science and technology, manufacturing and energy. By the end of last year, nearly 1.24 million foreign-funded companies had been established in China, with paid-in foreign capital reaching CNY20.6 trillion. Last year alone, some 60,000 foreign-invested companies were newly established in China, up 9.9% year-on-year.
President Xi said that facts have proven that foreign-invested enterprises are important participants in China’s modernization drive, key players in China’s reform, opening-up and innovation, as well as crucial participants in connecting China with the world and involving the country in economic globalization. Throughout the process, foreign firms have in general received substantial returns, developed themselves, realized mutual benefits and win-win results, and also formed deep friendships with the Chinese people, he said. Noting that opening-up is China’s fundamental policy, Xi told the business leaders that China is promoting high-standard opening-up and steadily expanding institutional opening-up with regard to rules, regulations, management and standards. China’s door of opening-up will only open wider and wider, and the policy of utilizing foreign investment has not changed and will not change, he said. Xi added that, as the country is committed to high-quality development and accelerating green, digital and intelligent transformation, and has a strong industrial support capacity, China can provide the best testing ground for the latest innovations of the technological revolution and industrial transformation. Highlighting that China is the world’s second-largest consumer market and has the world’s largest middle-income population, Xi said that China contains huge potential for investment and consumption.
Last month, China issued the 2025 Action Plan for Stabilizing Foreign Investment, putting forward 20 new measures on expanding opening-up in an orderly manner and boosting foreign investment. China will further expand its opening-up by focusing on lowering the market entry threshold, Xi said, vowing to ensure a level playing field for foreign firms in China and to provide convenience and legitimate guarantees for foreign investment in the country. At the same time, China will unswervingly pursue a path of peaceful development and strive to create an enabling environment for foreign businesses, he added.
Xi said that China has been and will remain an ideal, safe and promising investment destination for foreign businesses. Partnering with China will bring more opportunities. Believing in China is believing in tomorrow. Investing in China is investing in the future, he added. The March 27 meeting came against the backdrop of global economic fragmentation and rising uncertainties, and China has repeatedly expressed firm opposition to unilateralism and protectionism. Over the past weeks, the new U.S. administration has adopted an increasingly protectionist trade policy by imposing various rounds of tariffs on other countries. Xi told the business leaders that multilateralism is the inevitable choice for addressing difficulties and challenges facing the world, and economic globalization is an unstoppable historical trend. Foreign enterprises, especially multinational corporations, play a crucial role and bear significant responsibilities in maintaining the global economic order, Xi said. He stressed the need to work together to uphold the multilateral trading system, maintain the stability of global industrial and supply chains, and preserve an open and cooperative international environment, guiding economic globalization in the right direction.
Executives of FedEx, Mercedes-Benz, Sanofi, HSBC Holdings, Hitachi, SK Hynix and Saudi Aramco were among the global CEOs who attended the meeting. Ola Kallenius, Chairman of the Board of Management of Mercedes-Benz Group, said the meeting showed that the “Chinese government attaches great importance on advancing high-level opening-up, its role in stabilizing the global economy and the foreign companies that invest in China, which is very encouraging”, the China Daily reports.
