Beijing – China courted the executives of the main US companies at an annual conference this week in a sign of how Beijing seeks to compensate for commercial pressures, instead of retaliation strongly.
For a long time, China has tried to attract foreign investment as a way of strengthening growth, while taking advantage of commercial interests for a potential influence on the White House, particularly under the president of the United States, Donald Trump. The United States has increased tariffs twice in all Chinese products since January, but Beijing has only announced specific duties and restrictions in a handful of US companies.
The conversation outside the China Development Forum organized by the State this week in Beijing reinforced a more conciliatory position than the official rhetoric this month on how China is prepared to fight “any type of war” with the United States.
The Chinese conference attendees did not focus on what can be done to respond to the US tariffs, to CNBC, Stephen Roach, main member of the center of China Paul Tsai of the Yale Law Faculty.
“The questions I have been receiving more [are]Why are Trump doing this? What are you trying to achieve? What do you think is needed to make the United States great? Roach said.
“My answer is that this is an unprecedented period for the role of the United States in the world economy. We return to a tariff regime that history tells us that it can be extremely destructive,” said Roach, and added that he expects more political uncertainty in the United States and worldwide “for a long time, a long time.”
US actions have changed in recent weeks as investors try to evaluate the economic impact of Trump’s changing plans for tariffs on the main US business partners. The president of the United States Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, said last week that tariffs could delay progress in reducing inflation in the United States.
A message of ‘tranquility’
At This Week’s Conference, China Was Trying to Send a Message of “Reassurance” – on How it plans to boost consumption and how the country is Headed in a “Modestly Positive Direction” Relative to What is Happening in The US, Said Scott Kennedy, Senior Adviser and Trustee Chair In Chinese Business and Economics at The Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Think Tank Based in Washington, DC
If the United States imposes significantly large rates in early April, “then it goes from managing costs and possibly discrediting decoupling,” Kennedy told CNBC. “And that could mean that the game has increased. So I think the level of anxiety is quite high. And that is why China is trying to provide this message of tranquility.”
The Trump administration has threatened with a strip of new tariffs on the main commercial partners from the beginning of April. China has increased its trade with the countries of Southeast Asia and the European Union, but the United States remains Beijing’s largest shopping partner in a single base of countries.
The Chinese Development Forum was executed on Sunday and Monday. Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook, was among the executives who attended, but Tesla’s CEO, Elon Musk, was not.
“The greatest optimism this year compared to last year at the CDF has been so moving,” said Ken Griffin, CEO of Hedge Fund Citadel, during an official panel in the forum.
Trump “is committed to US companies that have access to a global market,” Griffin said. “And the president is willing to use tariffs to seek to enforce this worldview.”
The first step towards the XI-Trump meeting?
Also on Sunday, American Republican Senator Steve Daines met with Chinese Prime Minister Li Qiang in Beijing, the first time an American politician visited China since Trump began his last term in January.
“This was the first step for an important next step, which will be a meeting between President XI and President Trump,” Daines told The Wall Street Journal. “When that happens and where it happens, it will be determined.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comments.
Li urged cooperation and said that no one can obtain from a commercial war, according to state media.
The CEO of Fedex, Raj Subramaniam, the senior vice president of Boeing, Brendan Nelson, the CEO of Cargill, Brian Sikes, the CEO of Medtronic, Geoffrey Martha, the CEO of Pfizer, Albert Bourla, the CEO of Qualcomm, Cristiano Amon, the CEO of Ul Solutions, Jennifer of the US-China, the president of the US-China, Sean Stein, also present at the Dina, Deporto meeting, with a Daina meeting, according to the meeting.
China, the second largest economy in the world, remains a significant source of income for many multinational corporations, not to mention an important part of its supply chains.
Despite its efforts to strengthen international business ties, the country warned about countermeasures on US tariffs and took incremental measures.
After US sanctions on the Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei during Trump’s first mandate as president, Beijing launched an unreliable list of entities that restricts foreign business activity with China.
China added Calvin Klein Parent PVH and some other US companies to the list after the increases in this year’s rate. On Monday, China also said that it would soon reveal new measures that would give it a legal basis to counteract foreign pressure.
Economic factors
For US companies in China, the state of economic recovery has also been an important factor for local business plans.
Since the end of September, China has intensified efforts to support the economy. The main political leaders at the beginning of this month affirmed the stimulus plans and a recent effort to encourage the technological entrepreneurs of the private sector following the artificial intelligence advances of Deepseek.
“This year, you feel a lot of positive impulse that begins in China. So I feel that the recovery is underway,” said Wendell P. Weeks, CEO of Corning, to CNBC.
However, China’s economy has fought with deflationary pressure and a fall of real estate, weighing the perspectives of regional growth for international companies.
Even Beijing’s impulse to support high -tech manufacturing so far has only added an average of 1.1 percentage points for gross internal product growth in each of the last three years, not enough to compensate for the resistance of 1.7 percentage of real estate during that time, according to Goldman Sachs estimates.
“We will continue to be optimistic because the role of technology is important, I think more than ever,” Amon from Qualcomm to CNBC said. “I think technology will be part of economic growth.”
