Chinese President Xi Jinping offers cooperation, reassurance during US business dinner with detente on the menu
- Xi Jinping tells hundreds of American business executives in San Francisco that modernisation is a ‘huge opportunity that China offers to the world’
- Chinese leader’s remarks came after summit with counterpart Joe Biden earlier Wednesday
The “hope of the China-US relationship lies in our peoples”, Chinese President Xi Jinping told American business leaders during a dinner in San Francisco on Wednesday, as he offered assurances to foreign investors over worries about China’s tightened business oversight and bilateral tensions.
Xi told the audience of about 400 people that, “[it was] the reaching out to each other by our peoples that have, time and again, brought China-US relations from a low back onto the right track” during the event, hosted by the National Committee on United States-China Relations (NCUSCR), and the US-China Business Council (USCBC) of the Apec summit in San Francisco.
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“I am convinced that once open, the door of China-US relations cannot be shut again. Once started, the cause of the China-US friendship cannot be derailed.”
“The more difficulties there are, the greater the need for us to forge a closer bond between our peoples and open our hearts to each other,” Xi said, adding that the two countries have agreed to increase the number of flights, speed up visa procedures, and promote high-level dialogue to expand tourism.
Among the guests at the evening gathering, held at the Hyatt Regency in the city’s financial district, were Tim Cook, chief executive of Apple, Marc Benioff, chief executive of Salesforce, and Ray Dalio, co-president of Bridgewater Associates.
Gina Raimondo, the US Commerce Secretary, and Nicholas Burns, the US ambassador to China, also attended the dinner, for which tickets cost between US$2,000 and US$40,000.
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The menu included a salad with local vegetables, Angus steak with sweet potato purée, asparagus, broccoli and green garlic pesto or a vegetable curry with jasmine rice. Dessert was a buttery tart filled with seasonal fruit and berries and custard.
The Chinese leader said his country respected the “historical, cultural and geographical position” inherent in the US, adding that he hoped that the American side would respect the “path of socialism with Chinese characteristics.”
“Likewise, the United States should not bet against China or interfere in China’s internal affairs. Instead, it should welcome a peaceful, stable and prosperous China.”
He also reaffirmed China’s commitment to its opening-up and modernisation strategy and reiterated that China hoped to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060, a commitment made two years ago during the UN General Assembly.
Raimondo said that Washington was not seeking conflict or an escalation of tensions with China.
She thanked Xi for his cooperation in fighting drug trafficking, such as fentanyl, and said the move would save American lives. More than 70,000 Americans died from opioid overdoses last year. The US Drug Enforcement Administration has reported that most of the fentanyl flowing into the US was traced to illegal labs in China and India.
Raimondo said a “growing China that plays by the rules … is a good thing”. She said that, like China, the US would also prioritise “its own national security and defend its value system”, which involves “diversifying our supply chains, investing in our own industrial base, and adopting targeted, precise protections [so] our most sensitive technology … cannot be used against us”.
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“[But] the vast majority of our trade and investment relationship with China does not involve national security concerns, and we are committed to promoting reciprocal trade and investment in those areas.
“We need to address the concerns of US businesses, but I think we can do that … through candid and direct diplomacy”, she said.
Earlier this week, Mike Gallagher, the Republican chairman of the bipartisan House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, criticised the event.
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Gallagher said it was “unconscionable” that American business leaders were willing to pay “thousands of dollars” to attend a dinner honouring “the same CCP officials who have facilitated a genocide against millions of innocent men, women and children in Xinjiang.”
He asked the presidents of the NCUSCR and the USCBC to provide the committee with several documents, including the full list of guests, companies and financial institutions that attended the dinner, who sat at the table with Xi, and an explanation of how profits from the event would be allocated.
In a statement, the NCUSCR and the USCBC said the dinner was part of a “long-standing tradition of co-hosting events for visiting leaders from China”.
Both organisations expressed said the event would provide an opportunity for people from both countries to engage constructively with the two leaders to achieve a “more stable and productive US-China relationship.”
