Chinese President Xi Jinping offers cooperation, reassurance during US business dinner with detente on the menu
- Xi Jinping tells hundreds of American business executives in San Francisco that modernisation is a ‘huge opportunity that China offers to the world’
- Chinese leader’s remarks came after summit with counterpart Joe Biden earlier Wednesday
The “hope of the China-US relationship lies in our peoples”, Chinese President Xi Jinping told American business leaders during a dinner in San Francisco on Wednesday, as he offered assurances to foreign investors over worries about China’s tightened business oversight and bilateral tensions.
Xi told the audience of about 400 people that, “[it was] the reaching out to each other by our peoples that have, time and again, brought China-US relations from a low back onto the right track” during the event, hosted by the National Committee on United States-China Relations (NCUSCR), and the US-China Business Council (USCBC) of the Apec summit in San Francisco.
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Xi Jinping, Joe Biden hold talks on sidelines of Apec summit to ease strained US-China ties
“I am convinced that once open, the door of China-US relations cannot be shut again. Once started, the cause of the China-US friendship cannot be derailed.”
“The more difficulties there are, the greater the need for us to forge a closer bond between our peoples and open our hearts to each other,” Xi said, adding that the two countries have agreed to increase the number of flights, speed up visa procedures, and promote high-level dialogue to expand tourism.
Among the guests at the evening gathering, held at the Hyatt Regency in the city’s financial district, were Tim Cook, chief executive of Apple, Marc Benioff, chief executive of Salesforce, and Ray Dalio, co-president of Bridgewater Associates.