China ready to be “partner and friend” of US, says President Xi

China is “ready to be a partner and friend of the United States,” the president said Wednesday Xi Jinping to American businessmen in San Francisco, in a context of concern about the slowdown of their economy.

If one country sees the other as a major competitor and a geopolitical challenge, “This will only lead to wrong measures, unwise actions and undesirable results.”he said at a dinner on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit being held in California.

Xi’s comments in San Francisco came hours after his long-awaited meeting with US President Joe Biden, where both agreed to reduce tensions, in their first meeting in a year.

The two sides announced a series of agreements, starting with the reactivation of a high-level military hotline. All this after holding conversations in the luxurious Filoli Garden, the opulent estate that was the setting for the series “Dynasty” in the 1980s.

”We should build more bridges and pave more roads for interactions between people,” Xi told an audience of around 400 business leaders, government officials and academics.. “We must not create obstacles or create a paralyzing effect,” he added.

Among the guests were Apple CEO Tim Cook; Laurence Fink, of BlackRock; and the CEO of Pfizer, Albert Bourla, according to the list to which AFP had access.

Xi’s comments at the event hosted by the US-China Business Council and the National Committee on US-China Relations come amid concerns about stricter business oversight of China and bilateral tensions.

Foreign business confidence in China hit its lowest point in years in September, according to U.S. and European business lobbyists, as U.S. firms look to divert investments.

The meeting between Xi and Biden was not without controversy, since after the meeting, a journalist asked the American president if he still considers Xi to be a “dictator.”

”It’s a term we used before. He [Xi] “He is a dictator in the sense that he is a guy who runs a communist country, which is based on a completely different form of government than ours,” Biden responded.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning responded Thursday by stating that “this kind of speech is extremely wrong and is irresponsible political manipulation.”

“China remains open for business”

For Lindsay Gorman, senior researcher at the German Marshall Fund in the United States, “Xi is keen to point out that, despite geopolitical tensions, especially around high-tech industries, China remains open for business.”

But “there is a lot more skepticism” on the part of American companies than there was ten years ago, although some may be eager to overcome tensions, he added.

Thibault Denamiel of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) noted that Chinese technology giant Huawei unexpectedly unveiled a new smartphone, which uses advanced 7-nanometer technology, during the visit of US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo. , to China this year.

It appears that Chinese authorities are sending a double message: that they can weather geopolitical headwinds, such as US chip controls, while encouraging foreign companies to continue investing in the country, he added.

Xi, who recently met with California Governor Gavin Newsom, said he would welcome visits from regional politicians and members of Congress.

But in a reminder of the underlying tensions, Mike Gallagher, a Republican who chairs a House committee on US-China Strategic Competition, railed against attendance at the meeting of top US business leaders.

He considered it “unconscionable” that American firms paid for a welcome dinner offered by the Communist Party, despite accusations against China of having perpetrated a “genocide” in the Xinjiang region.

Gallagher added that executives “must recognize that the reality of doing business in China today includes the increased risk of arbitrary detentions, exit bans and raids by Chinese intelligence services.”

While the meeting was taking place in a hotel in the city, pro-Tibet activists demonstrated against the presence of Xi, whom they accuse of violating the human rights of his compatriots. Dozens of people with flags of the People’s Republic of China also arrived at the scene.