- Xi Jinping on Wednesday was playing nice with US business leaders and academics on Wednesday.
- He’s seeking to boost China’s faltering economy.
- But Xi is also trying to dent US global power on several fronts.
China’s President Xi Jinping presented an uncharacteristically affable image Wednesday, smiling broadly for US business leaders at a meeting in Beijing.
The Chinese leader sought to assure investors including Cristiano Amon of Qualcomm and Stephen Schwarzman of the Blackstone Group that the downturn in China’s economy, its biggest contraction in 15 years, would be over soon.
He went on to paint a bright picture of future US-China relations, saying, according to the Xinhua state news agency.
“Whether it is traditional fields such as economy, trade and agriculture, or emerging fields such as climate change and artificial intelligence,” he said, “China and the United States should help boost each other’s development.”
Only weeks ago, Xi struck a very different tone.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The Chinese leader sought to assure investors including Cristiano Amon of Qualcomm and Stephen Schwarzman of the Blackstone Group that the downturn in China’s economy, its biggest contraction in 15 years, would be over soon.
“Courting foreign investment is important for both objective and narrative purposes: China is trying to manage a challenging set of growth headwinds and signal that influential business leaders are still making a long-term bet on the country,” he said.
“In addition, while it is competing vigorously with the United States, it seeks to avoid a total rupture of relations with the world’s preeminent power; sustained engagement with the US business community is essential to that end.”
As part of his bid to smooth ties with the US and secure investment last November, Xi made a number of concessions to President Joe Biden, offering to help tackle fentanyl trafficking and work together on limiting the use of AI in nuclear weapons.
“It can bring some stability but not change the nature of a relationship that probably hasn’t found bottom yet,” said Robert Daly, director of the Wilson Center’s Kissinger Institute on China and the United States, speaking to NPR in November.
Underscoring the gap between Xi’s rhetoric Wednesday and reality, only days ago, the US and UK accused China of conducting an extensive and yearslong hacking campaign targetting businesses, politicians, and other public figures.
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