The participants pose for a group photo before the opening ceremony of the China Development Forum 2025 at the Diaoyutai guest house on March 23, 2025 in Beijing.
China News Service | China News Service | Getty images
BEIJING – China has courted the leaders of large American companies at an annual conference this week in a sign of the way Beijing seeks to compensate for trade pressures, rather than retaliation.
China has long sought to attract foreign investments as a means of strengthening growth, while Commercial Interest For the potential Influence on the White Houseespecially under the American president Donald Trump. The United States has twice increased prices on all Chinese products since January, but Beijing has only announced targeted functions and restrictions on a handful of American companies.
The conversation on the sidelines of the Chinese development forum organized by the state this week in Beijing has strengthened a more conciliatory position that official rhetoric this month on the way China is ready to fight “any type of war” with the United States.
Participants in the Chinese conference were not that focused on what can be done to meet the American prices, a main scholarship from Paul Tsai China Center told CNBC.
“The questions I got more (are), why is Trump doing this? What is he trying to achieve? What does he think it requires to really make America great?” Said Roach. He has attended the event since the early 2000s.

“My answer is that it is an unprecedented period for the role of America in the world economy. We return to a pricing regime which, in history, can be extremely destructive,” said Roach, adding that he expects more political uncertainty in the United States and in the world “for a very long time.”
American actions have changed In recent weeks, while investors have been trying to assess the economic impact of Trump’s changing plans for prices on the main American business partners. The president of the American federal reserve, Jerome Powell, said last week Prices could delay progress on reduction in inflation in the United States
A message of “comfort”
During this week’s conference, China was trying to send a message of “comfort” – on how it plans to stimulate consumption And how the country is heading in a “modest positive direction” compared to what is happening in the United States, said Scott Kennedy, principal advisor and chair chair in terms of trade and economy of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington, DC reflection group
If the United States imposed considerably important prices in early April, “then you go from cost management and disintegration to possibly detect,” Kennedy told CNBC. “And then that could mean that the game is in place. So I think the level of anxiety is quite high. And that’s why China is trying to provide this comfort message.”
The Trump administration threatened a band of new prices on the main business partners from early April. China has increased its trade with the countries of Southeast Asia and the European Union, but the United States remains the largest trading partner in Beijing in one country.
The China Development Forum took place on Sunday and Monday. Apple CEO Tim Cook was one of the executives who attended, but Tesla CEO Elon Musk was not.
“The increased optimism of this year compared to last year at the CDF was so warming cardiac warming,” said Ken Griffin, CEO of Hedge Fund Citadel, during an official panel of the forum.
Trump “is committed to American companies with access to a global market,” said Griffin. “And the president is ready to use prices to try to enforce this vision of the world.”
First step to the Xi-Trump meeting?
Also Sunday, American Republican Senator Steve Daines met Chinese Prime Minister Li Qiang In Beijing – The first time an American politician visited China since Trump began his last mandate in January.
“It was the first step towards an important step, which will be a meeting between President XI and President Trump.” Daines said to Wall Street Journal. “When this happens and where it happens, it is being determined.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comments.
Li urged cooperation and said No one can win a trade war, According to the state media.
FEDEX CEO, Raj Subramaniam, Boeing principal vice-president, Brendan Nelson, CEO of Cargill Brian Sikes, CEO of Medtronic Geoffrey Martha, PFIZER PDG Albert Bourla and Qualcomm PDG Cristiano Amon, Ult Solutions PDG Jennifer SCMANLON and the president of the bass of China, Sean Stein, were also presented in Daine ‘.
China, the second world economy, remains an important source of income for many multinational companies, not to mention a large part of their supply chains.
Despite its efforts to strengthen international trade links, the country has warned against countermeasures on American prices and has taken additional measures.
Following the American sanctions against the Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei during Trump’s first term as president, Beijing launched a list of unreliable eitities that restricts foreign commercial activity with China.
China added Calvin Klein Parent PVH and a few other American companies to the list after the increase in this year’s price. Monday, China also said that it Restore new measures soon This would give him a legal basis to counter foreign pressure.
Economic factors
For American companies in China, the state of the economic recovery was also an important factor for local business plans.
Since the end of September, China has intensified its efforts to support the economy. The best political decision-makers earlier this month have confirmed stimulation plans and recent effort to Encourage technological entrepreneurs in the private sector In the wake of the breakthroughs of the artificial intelligence of Deepseek.
“This year, you feel a lot of positive impetus from China. So I have the impression that recovery is underway,” said Wendell P. Weeks, CEO of Corning, at CNBC.
However, the Chinese economy has fought against deflationary pressure and A decrease in real estateweighing on the prospects for regional growth for international companies.
Even the Pékin’s thrust to support the manufacturing of high technology has so far added only 1.1 percentage point on average to the gross growth of interior products in each of the last three years – not enough to compensate for the trail of 1.7 percentage of real estate during this period, according to estimates by Goldman Sachs.
“We will remain optimistic because the role of technology is important, I think more than ever,” Amon’s Amon told CNBC. “I think technology will be part of economic growth.”