The Chairman of the people’s Republic of China XI Jinping said the heads of the American and European companies that China will retaliate against those countries and companies that are trying to harm China.
This is with reference to unnamed sources reported by the Wall Street Journal. As noted, XI Jinping touched on the subject of protectionism and trade restrictions on the Global Council meeting of Directors General (Global CEO Council) in the state residence of Diaoyutai in Beijing. The meeting was attended by executives of 20 multinational corporations in the U.S. and the EU, in particular Goldman Sachs, Schneider Electric, Volkswagen, AstraZeneca, as well as a number of companies from Asia.
The meeting was held on June 21. The official Chinese media, particularly the Xinhua news Agency, reported it in a neutral manner, noting China’s commitment to openness and cooperation. According to sources the WSJ, in his speech, XI Jinping made it clear to the heads of companies in the US and the EU that China is not going to abide by Western norms of morality in a “trade war.”
“In the West you have the notion that if someone slaps you on the left cheek you turn the other cheek. On our way we hit back”:
‘In the West…you turn the other cheek,’ China’s Xi Jinping told CEOs last week after Trump escalated the trade measures. ‘In our culture we punch back’
– The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) June 25, 2018.
At a meeting with business leaders, XI Jinping also announced that China will build partnerships with those companies and countries that want it. The restrictions some countries will not affect China’s intention to develop its economy. The Chinese President said: “If one door closes, another opens”.
Reportedly, the Chinese authorities have already started to provide benefits for companies from Europe and Japan. One example of this approach were the actions of financial regulators of the PRC on applications from large foreign financial companies to establish a joint brokerage companies in China. As noted, in may documents for the creation of such JVs in China filed Japanese Nomura Holdings, Swiss Group UBS and JPMorgan Chase American. Applications Nomura and UBS are already approved, the consideration of applications JPMorgan is not yet completed.
Among one of the long-term measures, in addition to tightening control over goods and companies from the USA, the complexity of their activities in China and the introduction of retaliatory duties, China also sought to accelerate negotiations to establish a free trade zone in the Asia-Pacific region of 16 States, not including the United States.
We are talking about the so-called draft Comprehensive regional economic partnership (VREP – Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, RCEP), proposed in 2012 at the ASEAN summit. According to sources the WSJ, China has resumed active negotiations on this project.
