Chinese vice-premier meets US finance chiefs amid Beijing’s trade war charm offensive
He Lifeng told senior executives from Citigroup and Carlyle Group that the country’s economy was showing ‘resilience and vitality’
State news agency Xinhua reported that He met Citigroup’s chairman John Dugan and Carlyle Group’s chief executive Harvey Schwartz separately in Beijing on Friday, saying: “China’s economy has continued its notable rebound, while high-quality development efforts are resulting in solid progress, demonstrating strong resilience and great vitality.”
He added that China welcomed investment from foreign firms and would “continue to expand its high-level opening up to the outside world, offering broad space for the long-term and stable development of multinational companies”.
According to Xinhua, Dugan said Citigroup was willing to “deepen its presence in the Chinese market” and would deepen investment cooperation, while Schwartz said Carlyle was willing to “commit to long-term cooperation with China”.
The Friday meetings came as trade frictions between Beijing and Washington remained high despite the two sides agreeing earlier this month to remove many of the tariffs imposed since April 2 and suspending others for 90 days following talks where He led the Chinese delegation.
Carlyle Group has described itself as one of the first and most active international private equity investors in the Chinese market.
Meanwhile, Citigroup has a strong presence across mainland China and in Hong Kong, where it set up its first office in 1902 and now runs a global wealth management centre to cater for the growing number of mainland clients.