China is ready to be a partner and friend of the United States, and there is plenty of room for bilateral cooperation, President Xi Jinping told US officials in San Francisco on Wednesday, as Beijing seeks to reassure global trade and woo. Wants to combat his country’s struggles. foreign investment.
US officials dined with Xi on the margins of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum after a day of talks between the Chinese leader and US President Joe Biden aimed at stabilizing ties between the world’s two largest economies. .
Xi received a standing ovation as soon as he entered the room and was also given a standing ovation twice before and after taking the stage to speak.
The world needs China and the United States to work together and it is wrong to see China as a threat and play a zero-sum game against it, Xi told the audience in a speech that included some of the remarks by Beijing. People were also involved.
“No matter what level of development it reaches, China will never seek hegemony or expansion, and will never impose its will on others. China does not seek sphere of influence and will not fight a cold war or hot war with anyone,” Xi said.
He assured his audience that “no matter how the global landscape evolves, the historical trend of peaceful coexistence between China and the United States will not change.”
Xi’s optimistic tone toward relations with the US contrasted with negative voices in Washington, where the US Congress finds unusual bipartisan consensus in the need to counter Beijing.
The high-security dinner was a chance for companies to hear directly from China’s leader as they navigate China’s economic slowdown, U.S. pressure to “de-risk” some U.S. supply chains away from China, and the uncertainty created by China’s expansion. Were searching for ways to deal with it. Safety rules.
Executives from US corporate giants such as Apple’s Tim Cook, BlackRock’s Lawrence Fink, Broadcom’s Hock Tan, Bridgewater Associates’ Ray Dalio and Pfizer’s Albert Bourla were at the dinner table.
Xi also met with Tesla CEO Elon Musk and told him he supports the company’s development in China, according to a statement on the auto maker’s Weibo account on Thursday.
The dinner, where coffee-crusted Black Angus flat iron steak and a vegetable curry with squash and rice was served, was attended by about 400 people, including government officials and academics.
But Xi directed most of his speech toward the American people and spent little time on commercial relations with the U.S.
“I want to tell you that China deeply sympathizes with the suffering that fentanyl has caused to the American people, especially young people,” he said.
Biden and Xi first reached an agreement on working together to curb fentanyl production.
Controversy
US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and other senior US officials also attended the event, which generated controversy due to reports of high ticket costs for companies that rubbed shoulders with Xi.
Mike Gallagher, Republican chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Select Committee on China, called it “unconscionable” that American companies would pay thousands of dollars to attend a dinner with a government that the United States says it supports. Is committing genocide against Muslim Uighurs.
Gallagher sent a letter on Monday to the hosts — the US-China Business Council and the National Committee on US-China Relations — demanding a full list of the individuals and companies who purchased tickets to the dinner.
Analysts have said Xi’s speech alone is unlikely to dramatically change US business sentiment about China.
US and Chinese officials have often described bilateral trade and business relations as a hindrance in otherwise contentious relations with the US, but growing economic and geopolitical rivalry between the superpowers has made companies from both countries a target of each other’s government. Have brought.
In line with Xi’s emphasis on self-reliance and national security, China has become more skeptical of engagement with Western companies, and this year it has cracked down on some American consulting and due diligence firms, further damaging investor confidence. Is.
But Gary Dvorchak, whose family hosted Xi in Iowa in 1985 when he was a young Chinese official, and who was invited by Beijing to attend the dinner, said Xi’s appearance was sensible public relations, given the ruling. This allowed the Communist Party to show its appeal to regular people.
“It humanizes him and it gives him the ability to engage with the American people and bypass the American media,” Dvorchak said.
(Reporting by Michael Martina, Valerie Incinna, Stephen Nellis, Lisa Bartlein, Niket Nishant; additional reporting by Ethan Wang and Liz Lee in Beijing; editing by Stephen Coates and Josie Cao)
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Source: fortune.com
