Chinese officials reiterated a welcoming message to corporate leaders at a conference on Wednesday, but the reality on the ground is more complex.
GUANGZHOU, China — The southern Chinese city of Guangzhou on Wednesday welcomed dozens of corporate leaders and foreign dignitaries with one overriding message: China is open for business.
The reality on the ground was more complex.
China is increasingly presenting itself as a global force: President Xi Jinping surprised the world in January when he told power brokers gathered in Davos, Switzerland, that the country planned to intensify its role in the absence of American leadership.
That message was echoed at the Guangzhou conference, which was attended by the leaders of companies like Apple, Ford Motor, Philips and Walmart and foreign leaders like Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada.
“China’s door will not close to the world but open wider,” Mr. Xi said in a letter addressed to the gathering, which was organized by Fortune magazine. China’s president was to attend the conference until changing his plans at the last minute, according to local media reports. Wang Yang, China’s vice premier, spoke of the country’s commitment to a “nondiscriminatory environment for foreign companies.” Another senior Chinese official promised a level playing field for foreign businesses.
But the messages of openness contrasted sharply with actions taken in Beijing and elsewhere in the country. China wants its giant national companies to be world leaders in sectors like electric cars, robotics and drones, but the authorities are accused of curtailing foreign firms’ access to Chinese consumers.
A government-led effort to help Chinese companies at home and abroad has set up a potential trade battle with the United States, as a growing number of American businesses complain that Chinese trade practices like forced technology transfer are putting them at a disadvantage.
At the conference in Guangzhou, multiple officials promoted what they called the “spirit” of the ruling Communist Party’s recent congress, which tightened Mr. Xi’s grip on the state gave his policies an exalted status in a sign of the role the party intends to play in China’s economy. The crowd in the cavernous ballroom at the Shangri-La Hotel thinned out as one official after another spoke over the course of an hour.
Surveys of China business leaders by the American Chamber of Commerce in recent years have shown that many American companies do not think the playing field is even.
