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Jane Cai

China is doubling down on efforts to appeal to foreign investors, with Premier Li Qiang promising offshore players wider access to the country’s markets and better services.
Addressing company executives in the eastern economic powerhouse of Zhejiang, Li said China put high value on the development of foreign-invested firms and would “steadily expand” their access to more sectors.
The commitments were part of a three-day trip that took in the cities of Hangzhou, Shaoxing and Jiaxing, and ended on Friday.
The visit followed the annual central economic work conference last week, when leaders pledged to stabilise foreign capital and foreign trade, and better support the private economy amid a deepening in “the negative influence from changes in the external environment”.
Those changes include a widely expected push by the incoming US administration of Donald Trump to decouple the United States from China.
Trump said on the campaign trail that he would impose tariff increases of 60 per cent or more on goods imported from China. Last month, he said he would impose an extra 10 per cent tariff on made-in-China products.
Foreign direct investment in China has been on a sharp decline since 2023 as investors remain wary of China’s slowing growth and strained ties with the United States.
FDI between January and November fell by 27.9 per cent year on year to 749.7 billion yuan (US$102.7 billion), according to the Ministry of Commerce.
Some bright spots during the period included a 10.9 per cent increase in FDI from Germany, a 4.8 per cent increase from Singapore, and 4 per cent growth from Switzerland. FDI from Asean countries was up by a combined 6.4 per cent.


In his stop in Jiaxing, Li visited German car component supplier ZF and was briefed on the company’s operating environment, according to Communist Party mouthpiece People’s Daily.
He assured executives that China supported fair competition and equal treatment for foreign and domestic companies, adding that he hoped more offshore firms would “take root” in China and share the market’s opportunities.
Beijing has made a series of attempts to attract foreign investment, including lifting all restrictions on foreign access to China’s manufacturing sector from November 1.
Two months earlier, China said it would let wholly foreign-owned hospitals to be set up in several major cities, and foreign-invested operations to offer human stem cell and gene therapy services in free-trade zones in Beijing, Shanghai, and the southern provinces of Guangdong and Hainan.


While in Jiaxing, Li also visited private logistics company YTO International Express. Earlier in Shaoxing he stopped at United Nova Technology, a partially state-owned Chinese semiconductor company, and the Zhejiang Provincial Innovation Centre for Advanced Textile Technology. He visited innovation centres in Hangzhou.
During the trip, Li stressed the importance of innovation, corporate investment in research and development, the expansion of computing infrastructure and technological self-reliance.
In various discussions, he listened to policy suggestions from entrepreneurs and encouraged companies to “be boldly innovative” so they could contribute to China’s high-quality development and stabilise the job market.
Li also said the government would improve the business environment and step up support for private firms.
Investment growth from the private sector, which makes up 60 per cent of national economic output, has stalled as confidence has waned.
A draft law aimed at promoting the private sector was submitted on Saturday for preliminary review to the national legislature, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress.
“The law will be conducive to creating a law-based environment that is favourable to the growth of all economic sectors, including the private sector,” Justice Minister He Rong was quoted by state news agency Xinhua as saying on Saturday.
The legislation is the first designed to safeguard the development of the private sector, but many economists have expressed disappointment with the provisions, saying they are just a wrap-up of policies launched in recent years to boost private sector confidence in the economy.


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Li uses trip to Zhejiang to reaffirm support for overseas investors and private domestic players


Li uses trip to Zhejiang to reaffirm support for overseas investors and private domestic players.
