BEIJING — Chinese Vice President Han Zheng vowed Friday to provide more opportunities for foreign companies in China as the government tries to restore confidence in the world’s second-largest economy.
Han told an audience of American businesspeople in Beijing that the government would continue to open more industries to foreign investment and create a market-oriented and law-based international business environment.
“China’s development achievements have been made by opening up,” he said at a banquet of the American Chamber of Commerce in China. “We will unwaveringly adhere to a high level of openness to the outside world.”
Chamber officials called his appearance at the annual dinner a positive signal that the government is serious about addressing the concerns of American and other foreign companies about the uncertainties and other challenges in the Chinese market.
The US and China remain divided on a wide range of issues, from trade and technology to the war in Ukraine, but at least they are talking again and looking for ways to manage their differences.
Both Prime Minister Li Qiang and the Minister of Commerce met this week with a visiting delegation led by Suzanne Clark, the head of the Washington DC-based American Chamber of Commerce.
“What I think the Chinese were trying to do is reassure us that they know there are still things on the to-do list that need to be done, and reassure us that they will get done,” the chairman said of the American Chamber. of Trade in China, Sean Stein, who participated in the meeting with Li.
Progress has been made in some areas, but not in others, Stein said before the dinner, adding: “It’s been a mixed bag.”
US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns told the audience that several months of high-level meetings and exchanges had brought a degree of much-needed stability to the US-China relationship, but difficult issues remained.
He cited overcapacity in Chinese industry, which has raised fears in the US and Europe that Chinese exports will flood their markets with exports; U.S. sanctions on Chinese companies supporting what he called “Russian defense-industrial complex,” and U.S. President Joe Biden’s recently expressed concern that connected vehicles from China could pose a threat to national security.
Burns pushed back on Chinese accusations that the United States wants to decouple its economy from China’s, saying his country is merely trying to reduce risks by diversifying its supply chains and limiting certain exports due to national security concerns.
“I can honestly say that too many people here in China are suggesting that we are decoupling,” he said. “But the facts do not support that argument. We are reducing risks, which is a necessary and fully justified policy.”