China tries to woo wary foreign firms with market access to offset US decoupling

Name: US-China trade talks postponed as Trump says he does not want to talk to China
Uploaded: 2020-09-06T11:30:11.000Z
Duration: 1 min 22 s
Description: US-China trade talks postponed as Trump says he does not want to talk to China

Central bank deputy governor promises a more open financial system as hawks in Washington press for disengagement

Securities official points to more potential for foreign investment in mainland capital markets with expansion of Stock Connect scheme

3-MIN READ3-MIN

China is stressing to foreign firms that it is open for business and more access to its economy is on the way. Photo: Xinhua

Frank Tang

Published: 7:30pm, 6 Sep 2020Updated: 9:22pm, 6 Sep 2020

Beijing has renewed its charm offensive to woo the foreign business community, stressing that it will keep opening up its domestic economy to inject some certainty in an increasingly hostile external environment.

China is offering a range of olive branches to American and European firms to continue and expand their businesses in the country, even as its rivalry with Washington risks descending into a new cold war that could force firms to pick sides.

The Chinese government’s key incentive to keep multinational companies onshore and lure other foreign financial giants is access to its huge domestic market, with fresh promises offered at the China International Fair for Trade in Services in Beijing, the first in-person trade expo since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

“We’ll build a more open financial system,” Chen Yulu, deputy governor of the People’s Bank of China, told a forum on Sunday morning.

“The measures adopted previously have already yielded initial success as more foreign investors and institutions are entering China’s financial markets in an orderly fashion.”

01:22

US-China trade talks postponed as Trump says he does not want to talk to China

The opening of China’s domestic financial market was one of the main provisions of the phase one trade deal Beijing signed with Washington in January. Since then, many Wall Street institutions, including banking giants JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley, investment companies Vanguard and BlackRock and credit card companies American Express and Mastercard, have gained greater access to China’s rapidly expanding corporate and consumer financial markets.