China yesterday repeated calls for the US to take more “practical and beneficial actions” to maintain China-US ties, after US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo expressed US companies’ complaints of an “uninvestible” Chinese market.
Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Wang Wenbin (汪文斌) made the comments, citing Premier Li Qiang (李強), who also said that mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation were the correct ways for both sides to get along.
Raimondo on Tuesday told reporters that US businesses had complained to her that China is “uninvestible,” referring to fines, raids and other actions that have made it risky to do business in the world’s second-biggest economy.
Photo: Reuters
Global investors, who have been spooked by unpredictable crackdowns on sectors from e-commerce to education in the past few years, have been streaming out of Chinese assets lately.
Foreign net selling of 82.9 billion yuan (US$11.37 billion) of Chinese stocks this month is a record outflow. Corporate investment is also going missing, with foreign direct investment (FDI) at its lowest since records began 25 years ago.
American Chamber of Commerce in China president Michael Hart said that businesses had been “very clear” in making their concerns known to the Chinese government.
“Certain actions, including raids on companies and restricting data flows, are not conducive to attracting additional FDI,” Hart said.
That sentiment was echoed by EU Chamber of Commerce in China president Jens Eskelund, who said that “’uninvestible’ is not a term we would use to describe China,” instead describing it as “underinvested,” adding that EU investment into China had been decreasing in the past few years.
“China can do much to turn this around,” Eskelund said. “But it would take clear, concrete and specific action in terms of removing some of the concerns presently weighing on companies when making investment decisions.”
Raimondo was in Shanghai yesterday for the last day of meetings before returning to the US.
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