China’s President Xi Jinping is poised to meet American business leaders in Beijing on Wednesday on the heels of the China Development Forum (CDF) that saw top US CEOs and Chinese policymakers rub shoulders this week.
The meeting with Xi was not part of the China Development Forum agenda, sources told Reuters, adding that it was deliberately scheduled for Wednesday to separate it from the high-profile summit.
The meeting follows Chinese Premier Li Qiang not meeting visiting foreign CEOs at the CDF between March 24-25, which prompted concerns over transparency in the world’s second-largest economy.
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The chance to exchange views with Beijing’s second-ranking leader had become a key element of the summit in previous years.
“The lack of [a] presser for Li Qiang at the Two Sessions and meeting with foreign executives at the China Development Forum shows Xi is very much in charge,” said Alfred Wu, an associate professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore.
“Xi authorises everything, and Li Qiang doesn’t want to overshadow his boss,” he added.
The meeting is seen as a follow-up to Xi’s November dinner with US investors in San Francisco, in which he received multiple standing ovations.
At the dinner, Xi said China was ready to be a partner and friend of the US, and that there was plenty of room for cooperation.
But ties between the world’s two biggest economies have only soured since over a range of issues, including the Joe Biden government’s probe into Chinese electric vehicles, Washington nudging allies Japan and South Korea to expand chip curbs against Beijing and an alleged satellite ‘spy network’ being set up by Elon Musk’s SpaceX for use by the US.
US chip firms ‘call for cooperation’
Xi’s meeting was proposed by chief executive of US insurer Chubb, Evan Greenberg, Reuters said, citing sources with direct knowledge of the matter. Other attendees include Stephen Orlins, president of the National Committee on US-China Relations, and Craig Allen, president of the US-China Business Council.
The meeting comes amid an intensifying chip war between the United States and China, which has seen Washington impose a range of export bans targeting the flow of advanced semiconductors and chipmaking equipment to Beijing.
In retaliatory moves, China has banned the use of chips from American firms Intel and AMD in government computers and servers. It has also placed similar restrictions on the use of Microsoft programmes such as Windows in state computers.
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The move is part of a larger effort by Xi to replace foreign technology in critical industries with homegrown alternatives from the likes of Huawei and SMIC.
Those developments led CEOs of leading US chip companies to “call for cooperation” between Washington and Beijing at the CDF, according to Chinese state media reports.
The American delegation was the largest at the summit in Beijing. State-backed Global Times (GT) said it accounted for 30% to 40% of the executives in attendance.
Among those were chiefs of US chipmakers Micron, AMD and Qualcomm, GT reported, adding that the executives met with Chinese officials and pledged commitment to the Chinese market.
AMD CEO Lisa Su called China “a stabilising force for the global semiconductor supply chain,” while Qualcomm chief Cristiano Amon called on Chinese and US governments to foster “an enabling environment for business investment and operations,” the Beijing mouthpiece said.
China also told US chipmaker Micron it could “accelerate” its investments in China, as long as it ‘fully abides by Chinese laws and regulations.’ Last year, China banned the use of Micron’s products from key infrastructure projects, citing “national security risks”.
- Reuters, with additional inputs from Vishakha Saxena
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