Special Edition
3 April 2025
Welcome to China-EU dynamics special edition! On the morning of March 28, President Xi Jinping met with representatives of the international business community at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. In this edition, we will focus on key takeaways from this meeting, statements of foreign business leaders, and comments from the media. Enjoy reading!
Key points of President Xi’s remarks:
⚫Foreign businesses are important participants in the Chinese modernization drive, in the country’s reform, opening and innovation, and in its interconnectivity with the world and integration into economic globalization.
⚫Foreign businesses have thrived and generally enjoyed handsome returns, achieved win-win results, and forged profound friendship with the Chinese people.
⚫China’s door will only open wider. The policy of welcoming foreign investment has not changed and will not change.
⚫China offers great potential for investment and consumption, and provides the best testing ground for the latest outcomes of technological revolution and industrial upgrading.
⚫China offers a vast stage for business development, vast market prospects, stable policy outlook, and a secure environment, making it a favored choice for foreign investment and business operations.
⚫China has been and will remain an ideal, secure, and promising destination for foreign investors.
⚫Embracing China is embracing opportunities, believing in China is believing in a better tomorrow, and investing in China is investing in the future.
⚫China will open up wider by focusing on lowering the threshold of market access; ensure equal national treatment for foreign businesses and uphold fair market competition; strengthen communication with foreign businesses, provide as much convenience as possible for them to trade and invest in China, and protect the legitimate rights and interests of foreign businesses in accordance with law.
⚫Multilateralism is the only choice for addressing global challenges, and economic globalization is an unstoppable trend of history. Foreign businesses, especially multinational companies, play an important role and bear significant responsibility for maintaining the global economic order.
For more details, click here.
What did foreign business leaders say?
More than 40 global chairmen and chief executive officers of foreign businesses as well as representatives of business councils attended the meeting.
President of the FedEx Corporation Rajesh Subramaniam, Chairman of the Board of Management of Mercedes-Benz AG Ola Källenius, Chief Executive Officer of Sanofi SA Paul Hudson, Executive Director of HSBC Holdings Plc. Georges Elhedery, President of Hitachi Ltd. Toshiaki Higashihara, President of SK Hynix Inc. Kwak Noh-jung, and President of Saudi Aramco Amin Nasser spoke at the meeting.
The foreign business representatives commended China for achieving steady economic growth through deep, comprehensive reform and high-standard opening up under the leadership of President Xi.
From "Made in China" to "new quality productive forces," China has empowered industrial transformation and upgrading through innovation, and is set to realize higher-quality and more sustainable development. The outlook of the Chinese economy is strong, they said.
Amidst growing protectionism, China has continuously expanded opening up, injecting stability into the global economy, and has become an oasis of certainty and a hot spot for investment and entrepreneurship, they said.
They said China's development is the core driving force of the global economy, and offers exciting, vast opportunities and growth potential.
They applauded the Chinese government's efforts to create a fair and enabling environment for foreign businesses and expressed readiness to expand investment cooperation with China, cultivate the China market, actively participate in Chinese modernization, and build bridges for China's exchanges and cooperation with the world.
They also expressed readiness to support an open global market, uphold international free trade, and contribute to the development of the world economy.
Here are some interviews after the meeting. Take a look!
Comments from the media:
History has shown that openness leads to progress, and cooperation -- not fragmentation -- drives prosperity. In the turbulent times, China's unwavering commitment to opening-up is not only crucial for its own growth but for the future of the global economy.
Global Times:
China remains an ‘ideal, secure and promising’ destination for foreign investors.
"I was honored and happy to be part of the group of global CEOs meeting with President Xi. That shows the Chinese government attaches great importance to advancing high-level opening-up, its role in stabilizing the global economy and the foreign companies that invest in China, which is very encouraging," Ola Källenius, chairman of the board of management of Mercedes-Benz Group AG, told the Global Times on Friday.
Financial Times:
The meeting with the business leaders followed a week in which China hosted its most important annual business summits: the China Development Forum in Beijing and the Boao Forum for Asia in the tropical resort island of Hainan.
The message was that, compared with Trump’s chaotic policymaking, Beijing was a bastion of stability and a champion of the global trading system.
“A few countries are building ‘small yards with high walls’, setting up tariff barriers, and politicising, instrumentalising, weaponising, and over-securitising economic and trade issues.” These actions were forcing companies “to take sides and make choices that go against economic principles”. “Decoupling and severing ties harms others without benefiting oneself; it leads nowhere.” Foreign business leaders should resist behaviours that “turn back the clock” on history.
President Xi promised better conditions for international companies, saying products made by groups with foreign investment in China would receive equal treatment in government procurement.
Chinese Vice Minister of Finance Liao Min co-chaired the 16th China-EU Financial Dialogue with EU officials in Brussels on 31 March. The two sides had in-depth discussions on issues including the macroeconomic situation and policies of China and the EU, cooperation under the G20 framework, as well as collaborations on audit supervision and government procurement.
⚫China is willing to work with the EU to actively implement the important consensus reached by the leaders of the two economies, jointly uphold multilateralism and the multilateral trading system and oppose unilateralism and protectionism, aiming to provide greater certainty to an uncertain global economy.
⚫China attaches great importance to its financial and economic cooperation with the EU, and will deepen practical cooperation with the EU in financial areas.
⚫China is ready to properly manage frictions and differences through dialogue and consultations with the EU, so as to promote the sound and stable development of China-EU economic relations.
On March 31, Zhang Jun, chief justice and president of the Supreme People's Court (SPC) of China, talked with Koen Lenaerts, president of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), via video link.
Noting that this year marks the 50th anniversary of China-EU diplomatic relations, Zhang emphasized the importance of judicial cooperation in strengthening bilateral ties. He also commended the fruitful outcomes of the ongoing judicial exchanges and cooperation between China and the EU and partnership between the SPC and the CJEU.
The pair discussed the consistent application of laws and challenges posed by the continuous rise in case volumes. Zhang briefed Lenaerts on Chinese courts’ efforts in proactively performing their duty mandated by the law and implementing resolutions adopted at this year's two sessions. He also expressed his hope for further collaboration with the CJEU.
Lenaerts lauded valuable experiences of Chinese courts, saying that the CJEU is willing to increase practical cooperation with Chinese courts, enhance mutual understanding and lay a strong foundation for future exchanges.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in the newsletter are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of China or our Mission, except those from the official website of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, our Mission and other Chinese governmental websites.
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