Beijing’s top economic bureaucrats are trying to convince the world that China will open to trade and investment flows and is willing to integrate further into the global economy.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said China would stick to “free trade” and open up its telecoms, health care, education and new-energy vehicle sectors to foreign investors.
In addition, China will remove foreign ownership caps on banks, brokerage houses and fund management firms – a promise made by Beijing during US President Donald Trump’s visit to China in November.
That message was underlined by Ning Jizhe, deputy director at the National Development and Reform Commission, the top economic planning agency, when he said the government was considering a slew of measures to widen market access this year.
NDRC chief He Lifeng said: “We will embrace an open policy. China’s door of opening will become wider.”
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The pledges come as the US reassesses its attitude to the global trade and investment system, from which China has benefited over the last few decades.
Mr Trump has said he will endorse higher tariffs on steel and aluminium imports, greatly raising the odds of a world trade war.
Willy Lam, adjunct professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong’s Center of Chinese Studies, said: “At this stage, the Chinese — at least on a rhetorical basis — are trying to placate the Americans.
“Chinese President Xi Jinping is a super nationalistic leader and that also translates into economic and financial policies so it remains to be seen if he will open up the world’s second largest economy meaningfully to foreign investors.”
Greg Gibbs, founder of Amplifying Global FX Capital, said the move appeared to be “a very small step, which is trying to placate perhaps the US and sound positive in some respect, so they perhaps don’t get the US pushing any harder on trade restrictions.”
Edward Alden, a senior fellow the Council on Foreign Relations, said the Trump administration was serious about trade action.
He said: “I would argue that Trump is perfectly prepared to bluff at times to gain negotiating advantages. But this does not look like bluff to me. They are pretty determined to go down this road.”
Meanwhile, India has issued a stark warning to Britain over striking quick trade deals with “non-democracies” like China after Brexit amid ongoing tensions between the two Asian giants over the contested border known as the Line of Control.
Ashish Chauhan, chief executive of the Bombay Exchange, said Britain leaving the EU was both “an opportunity and a threat” to improve trading relations with Asia but he warned the UK not to get “carried away”.
He said: “The UK would be better off working with democracies. It’s easy to get carried away with fast results from non-democracies.”
When asked to clarify what he meant by “non-democracies”, Mr Chauhan pointed to China.