Photo: Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) spokesperson, Shu Juetin
It is hoped that the US will translate its promise of “not intending to suppress and contain China” into action and meet China halfway to create good conditions for enterprises to carry out two-way trade and investment cooperation, China’s Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) spokesperson Shu Jueting said at a regular press briefing on Thursday.
The comment was made in response to a question about whether the improvement in China-US relations could “restore foreign investors’ willingness to invest in China,” after US investment inflows into China plunged so far this year, especially in the technology field.
Shu referred to the China-US summit in San Francisco last week, during which the Chinese and US leaders met and set the direction for the healthy, stable and sustainable development of bilateral relations. US President Joe Biden noted that a stable and developing China serves the interests of the US and the world. The US has no intention to halt China’s economic development or to contain China, nor to seek “decoupling” from China, Shu said.
Shu noted that the push for “decoupling” and so-called “de-risking” would only artificially interfere with normal investment and operations by enterprises, which would not be in the fundamental interests of companies in either country.
In August, Biden signed an executive order to restrict new high-tech US-based investment in China, especially targeting semiconductors, microelectronics, quantum information and artificial intelligence (AI).
“The industry has widely recognized that China has a huge market, and it is the second-largest destination for foreign investment after the US. US high-tech companies are very clear that if they lose investment and development opportunities in the Chinese market, it will inflict serious damage to their revenue and development potential,” Shu said.
She added that the self-imposed restrictions of the US would put its own companies at a disadvantage in global competition.
At the China-US Summit last week, the world’s two largest economies also agreed to start China-US government talks on AI, which observers said is an important result of the summit, is in the interests of both countries, and also benefits global innovation.
Global Times
