BOAO, Hainan – China will continue opening its economy to the world, Vice-Premier Ding Xuexiang told an international forum, reiterating his country’s pitch for more foreign investment as an escalating trade war unleashed by the US shakes global business sentiment.
“We sincerely welcome businesses from all countries to invest and operate in China,” he said at the opening plenary of the Boao Forum for Asia on March 27.
To the annual gathering of business leaders, government representatives and academics in the island province of Hainan, Mr Ding highlighted opportunities for companies in the world’s second-largest economy, and pledged to foster a more pro-business environment with improved market access.
His remarks come as China ramps up efforts to shore up a sluggish economy expected to be hit hard by US trade tariffs in 2025. The US is one of China’s largest trading partners, with the total value of trade in goods in 2024 reaching US$582.4 billion (S$780.9 billion).
Chinese Premier Li Qiang had struck a similar note with global business leaders days earlier, as Beijing moves to court foreign investors who have pulled back from China amid rising geopolitical tensions and uncertainty about its outlook.
In 2024, China suffered its largest capital flight since the 1990s, with official data indicating that net foreign direct investment fell by US$168 billion.
Officials released in February an “action plan for stabilising foreign investment”.
In Boao, Mr Ding profiled China’s technological achievements, from humanoid robots to artificial intelligence, and touted opportunities for Asia and the world as it develops new growth drivers in emerging industries such as biomanufacturing and drones.
He struck a confident note that China would achieve its growth target of around 5 per cent in 2025.
The country, he said, would implement “more proactive and effective macroeconomic policies” to expand domestic demand and stabilise trade and investment.
And as the US ratchets up a tariff war that is poised to grow in scope in early April, Mr Ding called for countries to “firmly oppose trade and investment protectionism” and to “uphold open regionalism”.
He cited free trade agreements such as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership that brings together 15 countries in the Asia-Pacific and the Asean-China Free Trade Area.
Since January, the US has levelled a series of across-the-board tariffs against China, Canada and Mexico.
It also imposed tariffs against all countries on steel and aluminium imports, and, most recently, on imports of cars and car parts.
Come April 2, a fresh tranche of what are termed “reciprocal tariffs” is expected, this time on trade partners which run large surpluses and impose high trade barriers on US exporters.
At the Boao forum on March 27, Washington’s tariffs came into sharp focus at a panel session on the US’ foreign policy.
A panel session on the US’ foreign policy, at the Boao Forum for Asia on March 27, 2025ST PHOTO: JOYCE ZK LIM
Mr Zhou Wenzhong, a former Chinese ambassador to the US from 2005 to 2010, expressed pessimism about the outlook for US-China trade relations.
He cited a bipartisan Bill in the US – the Restoring Trade Fairness Act – that would rescind China’s preferential trade status and pave the way for higher tariffs on Chinese imports. It has yet to be voted on by US lawmakers.
To a packed room of delegates and reporters, he called on American attendees to “go back and lobby” the administration of President Donald Trump and Congress against this, adding that the higher tariffs “will hurt others, it will hurt the US itself”.
Mr Cui Tiankai, who was China’s ambassador in Washington from 2013 to 2021, remarked on the US’ about-turn in its attitude towards the free trade it once championed.
“People often told us how good free trade was, how good it was to reduce tariffs and open up markets,” Mr Cui recalled of his time as a diplomat covering multilateral affairs decades earlier.
But today, he said, “the people who were preaching this to us now do not believe it themselves”.
Washington’s tariffs came into sharp focus at the packed panel session.ST PHOTO: JOYCE ZK LIM
American economist Jeffrey Sachs, a professor at Columbia University, argued that the US’ current trade policy was fundamentally misguided and would not achieve its stated aims.
Protecting industries, he said, would render American companies uncompetitive.
“Enjoy the world market, BYD,” he said with irony of the Chinese electric vehicle maker, which faces a steep tariff of 100 per cent in the US.
Prof Sachs advised China to “ignore the United States” – not to count on the American market, which “is not going to be there for you” – and to instead expand in other markets.
To this, Mr Cui had the following to say: “We don’t want to ignore the United States. We very much want the United States to ignore us.”
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