To woo back foreign investors, Beijing goes on charm offensive – at Starbucks
Ministry briefings are often dull affairs held in Soviet-inspired halls. But two senior officials try a different approach to get the message out that Beijing wants overseas business
A coffee shop is not a standard venue for the Chinese government to deliver policy messages.
But as complaints grow louder that Beijing is becoming increasingly harsh towards foreign businesses, the government’s information office has tried a novel approach to getting its message across: eschewing the staid conference room in a Soviet-style government building for the more cosy space of a Starbucks in Beijing to tell foreign journalists that China’s arms remained open to foreign investors.
“Once the door is open, it won’t be closed,” said one senior official from the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), who was joined by a department director from the Ministry of Commerce.
The NDRC official declined to be named as the event was more of a backgrounder than a formal press conference. He said he had full confidence in China’s ability to woo foreign investors “regardless of changes in the global situation”.
Plenty of questions arose on the other side of the table, literally. The nine journalists attending the event pressed for answers on a range of issues, including China’s curbs on outbound investments, the future policy towards the yuan exchange rate, and the identity of a foreign carmaker being investigated by China for alleged anti-trust activities.