Eating with US corporations at APEC, Xi says China is able to be a spouse

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 15 (Reuters) – China is able to be a spouse and buddy of the US, and there may be various room for bilateral cooperation, President Xi Jinping instructed American executives in San Francisco on Wednesday, as Beijing seems to be to reassure international trade and counter his nation’s struggles to lure overseas funding.

The U.S. executives dined with Xi at the margins of the Asia-Pacific Financial Cooperation (APEC) discussion board following an afternoon of talks between the Chinese language chief and U.S. President Joe Biden, aimed toward steadying family members between the sector’s two biggest economies.

Xi won a status ovation as he entered the room, and two extra prior to and after he took the degree to talk.

The arena wishes China and the U.S. to paintings in combination, and it’s unsuitable to view China as a danger and play a zero-sum recreation in opposition to it, Xi mentioned in a speech to the target audience, together with some hand-picked through Beijing.

“No matter degree of construction it should succeed in, China won’t ever pursue hegemony or growth, and can by no means impose its will on others. China does now not search spheres of affect, and won’t combat a chilly conflict or a scorching conflict with somebody,” Xi mentioned.

He confident his target audience that “regardless of how the worldwide panorama evolves, the historic development of non violent coexistence between China and the US is not going to exchange.”

Xi’s positive tone towards family members with the U.S. was once at odds with the destructive refrain of voices in Washington, the place the U.S. Congress unearths abnormal bipartisan consensus within the want to counter Beijing.

The high-security dinner was once a possibility for firms to listen to at once from China’s chief as they seek for techniques to navigate China’s financial slowdown, a U.S. push to “de-risk” some American provide chains clear of China, and uncertainty brought about through China’s increasing safety regulations.

Executives from U.S. company giants reminiscent of Apple’s (AAPL.O) Tim Cook dinner, BlackRock’s (BLK.N) Laurence Fink, Broadcom’s (AVGO.O) Hock Tan, Bridgewater Mates’ Ray Dalio and Pfizer’s (PFE.N) Albert Bourla had been on the dinner tables.

Xi additionally met Tesla (TSLA.O) CEO Elon Musk, telling him that he helps the corporate’s construction in China, in line with a observation from the automobile maker’s Weibo Account on Thursday.

The dinner, the place lessons served incorporated coffee-crusted black angus flat iron steak and a vegetable curry with squash and rice, attracted just about 400 folks, together with executive officers and lecturers.

China’s President Xi Jinping speaks on the “Senior Chinese language Chief Tournament” held through the Nationwide Committee on US-China Family members and the US-China Industry Council at the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Financial Cooperation (APEC) summit in San Francisco, California, U.S., November 15, 2023. REUTERS/Carlos Barria/Pool Gain Licensing Rights

However Xi directed a lot of his speech towards the American folks and spent little time on industrial family members with the U.S.

“I wish to help you know that China sympathizes deeply with the American folks, particularly the younger, for the sufferings that fentanyl has inflicted upon them,” he mentioned.

Biden and Xi previous reached an settlement on running in combination to curb fentanyl manufacturing.

CONTROVERSY

U.S. Trade Secretary Gina Raimondo and different senior U.S. officers additionally attended the development, which generated controversy because of reported excessive price tag prices for firms looking for to comb shoulders with Xi.

Mike Gallagher, the Republican chairman of the U.S. Area of Representatives’ make a selection committee on China, had referred to as it “unconscionable” that U.S. firms would pay hundreds of greenbacks to sign up for a dinner with a central authority the US says is committing genocide in opposition to Muslim Uyghurs.

Gallagher despatched a letter on Monday to the hosts – the U.S.-China Industry Council and the Nationwide Committee on U.S.-China Family members – tough a whole listing of people and firms that bought tickets to the dinner.

Analysts have mentioned Xi’s speech on my own is not going to dramatically modify U.S. trade sentiment about China.

U.S. and Chinese language officers have continuously described bilateral trade and industry family members because the ballast in another way contentious ties with the U.S. However the rising financial and geopolitical competition between the superpowers has positioned firms from each international locations within the crosshairs of the opposite’s executive.

China has grown extra suspicious of engagement with Western firms, in keeping with Xi’s emphasis on self-reliance and nationwide safety, and this 12 months it has cracked down on some U.S. consultancy and due-diligence corporations, additional harmful investor self belief.

However Gary Dvorchak, whose circle of relatives hosted Xi in Iowa in 1985 as a tender Chinese language authentic, and who was once invited through Beijing to wait the dinner, mentioned Xi’s look was once savvy public family members, permitting the ruling Communist Birthday celebration to turn his attraction to common folks.

“It humanizes him and it offers him a capability to turn a connection to the American folks and bypass the American media,” Dvorchak mentioned.

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