24 September 2015•Update: 24 September 2015
By Barry Eitel
SAN FRANCISCO
China’s president on Wednesday told American tech leaders that his country is working toward becoming a more welcoming place for businesses.
On the second day of his visit to the United States, Xi Jinping toured the Seattle area campuses of aircraft manufacturer Boeing and personal computing pioneer Microsoft. He also spoke to a small audience of tech industry executives including Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Apple CEO Tim Cook and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. Jack Ma, chief executive of massive Chinese online retailer – and Amazon rival – Alibaba, was also in attendance.
At the meeting, Xi said he would work toward breaking down barriers for foreign investors in China as well as boosting protection for intellectual property, two issues that have made American businesses extremely wary of working in China.
“We are working to create a new open economic system, push forward reform of foreign investment management and greatly reduce the restrictions on foreign investment,” he told the group, which also included Berkshire Hathaway leader Warren Buffett and Yang Yuanquin, CEO of Chinese device maker Lenovo.
While the Chinese economy has struggled recently, Xi said Wednesday that “the positive long-term trend in China’s economy will not change”.
Tech giants like Google, Facebook, Apple and Microsoft are extremely interested in entering China, the second largest market on the planet after the U.S. The country has roughly 750 million Internet users, more than double the entire American population. Apple’s iPhone 6, released last fall, proved tremendously popular in China. Strict government censorship and accusations of state-sponsored cyberattacks, however, have dampened business relations.
Boeing announced Wednesday that the company signed a $38 billion deal with China to provide 300 jets and build an aircraft manufacturing plant in China.
