Xi vows billions in new investments
Chinese leader alludes to ‘geopolitical games’
BEIJING — Chinese President Xi Jinping promised foreign companies greater access to China’s huge market and more than $100 billion in new financing for other developing economies as he opened a forum Wednesday on his signature Belt and Road infrastructure initiative.
Xi’s initiative has built power plants, roads, railroads and ports around the world and deepened China’s ties with Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Mideast. But the loans backing the projects have burdened poorer countries with heavy debts, in some cases leading to China taking control of those assets.
At the forum’s opening ceremony at the Great Hall of the People, Xi promised that two Chinese-backed development banks — the China Development Bank and the Export-import Bank of China — will each set up $47.9 billion financing windows. An additional $11 billion will be invested in Beijing’s Silk Road Fund to support BRI projects.
“We will comprehensively remove restrictions on foreign investment access in the manufacturing sector,” Xi said. He said China would further open up “cross-border trade and investment in services and expand market access for digital products” and carry out reforms of stateowned enterprises and in sectors such as the digital economy and intellectual property rights.
The pledges of hefty support from Beijing come at a time when China’s economy has slowed and foreign investment has plunged.
Xi alluded to efforts by the United States and its allies to reduce their reliance on Chinese manufacturing and supply chains amid heightened competition and diplomatic frictions and reiterated promises that Beijing would create a fairer environment for foreign firms.
“We do not engage in ideological confrontation, geopolitical games nor clique political confrontation,” Xi said. “We oppose unilateral sanctions, economic coercion and the decoupling and severance of chains,” a reference to moves elsewhere to diversify industrial supply chains.
Representatives from more than 130 mostly developing countries are attending the forum. Russian President Vladimir Putin is attending too, reflecting China’s economic and diplomatic support for Moscow.