Xi Jinping addresses US business leaders amid rising skepticism over ties with China

Chinese leader Xi Jinping, who will meet President Biden in San Francisco next week, is expected to speak with top US business officials at a dinner after that bilateral meeting.

Mr Xi, who is traveling to the United States for an international conference, will address business leaders at a challenging time in US-China relations. The United States has expressed growing concern about China’s military ambitions and has sought to cut off Beijing’s access to technology that could be used against the United States. China’s treatment of Western companies, which face tighter restrictions on the way they do business, has also prompted companies to question the wisdom of investing in China.

Still, Chinese and U.S. leaders have expressed interest in strengthening ties between their economies, the world’s two largest, which remain inextricably linked through trade. The Biden administration has sent several top officials to China this year to try to make the case that while the United States wants to protect national security, it does not want to sever economic ties with Beijing.

It is unclear whether Mr. Mr Xi.

Tickets for the dinner and reception, organized by the National Committee on US-China Relations and the US-China Business Council, cost $2,000 each, according to an invitation circulating online and people familiar with the plans. For $40,000, companies can buy eight chairs at a table plus one chair at Mr. Xi’s table, one of those people said.

Contacts between Chinese officials and the U.S. business community will seek to send the message that China remains an attractive place to do business, “as evidenced by the droves of companies wanting to meet and dine with Xi Jinping,” said Jude Blanchette, chairman from Freeman. in China Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said in a briefing Tuesday.

Beijing wants this for “tactical reasons,” Mr. Blanchette said. “I don’t think they, on a broad level, expect or see the prospect of resetting or recalibrating the relationship.”

Foreign companies are particularly concerned about Chinese regulations that prevent them from selling to the government or in certain markets, as well as a broader counterintelligence law that could lead to prison sentences for business executives and researchers dealing in sensitive industries. At the same time, the United States is increasing restrictions on investing in and selling advanced technology to China, saying such ties could raise national security concerns.

Many companies still see China as an essential market, but more and more companies are starting to look to other countries for their new investments. a questionnaire A US-China Business Council survey of its members this year found that 34 percent had halted or reduced planned investments in China in the past year, a higher percentage than in previous years.

Mr. Blanchette said Chinese officials would also see the meeting as an opportunity to try to change the American trajectory on the technological controls the country has placed on China. But the United States is unlikely to change its position, he said.

“I think this will be one of the issues where the US and China will have long-term tensions. And I am sure this will be passed on to Beijing,” Mr Blanchette said.

The visit will be Xi’s first trip to the United States since 2017, when he met President Donald J. Trump at the Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. Since then, US-China business relations have changed dramatically, with the countries waging a trade war and sparring over high technology and geopolitical influence, and China becoming significantly more authoritarian under Mr Xi.

The dinner and reception with Mr Xi will be part of a two-day “CEO Summit” taking place next week on the sidelines of a larger meeting of the leaders of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation, a group of 21 countries around the Pacific. Ocean. Mr Biden is expected to meet with Mr Xi earlier next Wednesday, in their first face-to-face meeting in a year.

Mr Biden and Mr Xi are expected to discuss business and technology ties, as well as issues such as communications between the countries’ militaries, stopping the flow of fentanyl into the United States and new agreements to manage artificial intelligence.

China has still not formally confirmed Mr Xi’s presence, but in recent weeks high-level Chinese officials have met with US counterparts to lay the groundwork for the trip. In a press release Wednesday, CEO summit organizers said Mr. Biden and Mr. Xi would attend the two-day summit, along with other world leaders and the CEOs of companies including Microsoft, Mastercard and Pfizer.