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September 25, 2015

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Next stop the White House for President Xi

Source: Agencies | September 25, 2015, Friday | Print Edition

WITH his feel-good tours of Boeing, Microsoft and a local high school complete, Chinese President Xi Jinping left Washington State yesterday for the other Washington, and talks with President Barack Obama.

Xi struck a gracious tone during his 48-hour stay in Seattle, during which he toured Boeing’s plant in Everett where it was announced that China was ordering 300 new aircraft from the US company worth some US$38 billion, visited Microsoft’s campus in Redmond, and received a football jersey with his name on it from high school students in Tacoma.

Accompanied by Ray Conner, president and CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, Xi walked around the factory’s assembly workshop with great interest and asked about the plane maker’s efforts on energy saving and emissions reduction, as well as its design ideas of future planes.

He also boarded a 787 plane which will soon be delivered to China’s Xiamen Airlines, and chatted with Boeing employees working on it.

He received an enthusiastic reception at Lincoln High School in Tacoma, where students gave him a football and a personalized jersey.

“He said it’ll fit him really well,” said 17-year-old Mushawn Knowles, who presented the jersey to Xi. “And hopefully we can have influence on him to love football.”

In public remarks, at a banquet and at a meeting of top corporate leaders from both nations, Xi stressed the importance of China-US business relations and vowed that his country would work to remove barriers to foreign investment and improve intellectual property protections.

He also expressed a willingness to work with the US on cyber security.

“Problems are always outnumbered by solutions,” Xi told the business leaders.

Xi and Obama are due to have a private dinner before Obama formally welcomes Xi and his wife Peng Liyuan at the White House for the official state visit today.

Apple CEO Tim Cook, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, investor Warren Buffett and Jack Ma of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba were among the 30 executives who attended Xi’s Seattle address on Wednesday.

“We are working to create a new open economic system, push forward reform of foreign investment management and greatly reduce the restrictions on foreign investment,” Xi told the executives.

Trading relationship

The speech followed a closed-door discussion moderated by former US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, whose organization, the Paulson Institute, organized the gathering.

Paulson noted difficult issues and increasing tensions facing the nations as he welcomed Xi. But he added: “The reason that the US and China have a nearly US$600 billion trading relationship, large amounts of US investment in China, and increasing amounts of Chinese direct investment here, is because there are many areas where our national and business interests align.”

Though he acknowledged hiccups as China shifts its economy, Xi told the group it would maintain a “steady medium and high speed of growth for a long time.”

“China will open up still wider to the outside world,” Xi said. “Without reform, there will be no driving force; without opening up, there will be no progress. ... There is good news, and I believe there will be more good news in the future.”

Xi attributed the Chinese economy’s recent slowdown to three factors — world economic problems, proactive Chinese efforts at regulation and “protracted structural problems” in China.

A major item of concern for the CEOs is a treaty that would provide a framework for broader investment in the economy of each nation.

All the American CEOs at the forum signed a letter to Xi and Obama urging them to support such a treaty, and they heard encouraging words from Xi on the topic.

“Once concluded, the treaty will further ease market access and put in place more open and transparent market rules,” he said.

Bilateral investment treaties provide rules for companies doing business in other countries. The agreements can help ensure the rights of foreign investors are protected and that foreign firms operate on a level playing field with domestic ones.

An agreement with China could open up more of the nation’s massive market to American companies, provide clearer rules for Chinese investment in the US, and create jobs, supporters say.

Nation


 

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