HONG KONG — For 30 minutes on Monday, Chinese President Xi Jinping offered a litany of conciliatory promises to political and business leaders from 172 countries gathered in Shanghai: he would turn his country of 1.3 billion into global consumers, welcome foreign investors into previously restricted sectors, and crack down on Chinese companies abusing intellectual property rights.
Then, he seemingly turned to an audience of one — his counterpart in the Oval Office — and his tone hardened.
“Great winds and storms may upset a pond, but not an ocean,” Xi said, comparing China to a vast and immovable sea. “After 5,000 years of trials and tribulations, China is still here. Looking ahead, China will be here to stay.”
In one of Xi’s most closely watched addresses since the start of a protracted trade dispute with the United States, the Chinese leader sounded alternately assuaging and unbowed as he made veiled jabs at President Trump’s leadership style and warned about the dangers of unilateralism.
“As globalization deepens, the practices of law of jungle and winner-take-all are a dead end,” he said.
His remarks on Monday kicked off the China International Import Expo, a week-long showcase to rebrand China as a consumption powerhouse at a time when its record-high trade surplus with the U.S. is just one of many sticking points for the Trump administration, which has demanded that Beijing make concrete overhauls to resolve the tariff standoff.
Without mentioning the United States once by name, Xi made broad promises to let global companies tap into the Chinese middle class and “share the benefits of globalization.” China would cut tariffs and import $30 billion in goods and $15 billion in services over the next 15 years, he said.
“China is a big market of over 1.3 billion people, and it is our sincere commitment to open the market,” Xi said. “China increasing imports will not be a choice of political expediency, but a future-oriented step taken to embrace the world.”
Yet in a 35-minute address, closely watched by observers as perhaps the Chinese president’s last major speech on the subject before he is set to meet with Trump for crucial trade talks later this month in Argentina, a confident Xi gave few signs that he was in the mood to make significant concessions.
Beyond the promises of tilting China’s trade balance, which has been a long-standing priority for Beijing’s economic planners, Xi stopped short of tackling the politically thorny complaints voiced by major trading partners.
[Trump and China’s Xi to meet in bid to end trade war tensions]
The United States, Europe and Japan and their business lobbies, for instance, have taken particular issue with aspects of China’s industrial policy that prop up its domestic industries while blocking foreign firms, like high-tech and Internet companies, in its bid for self-reliance. And many have professed frustration with the alleged theft of trade secrets, with the U.S. Department of Justice saying last week it would launch a new initiative to crack down on Chinese spying.
Even as he acknowledged that China should strengthen intellectual property enforcement and will ratchet up punishments for violators, Xi immediately followed up with a rebuke of China’s critics.
Those who complain about Chinese commercial practices “should not just point fingers at others to gloss over their own problems,” he said. “They should not hold a flashlight that only exposes others while doing nothing themselves.”
With the United States notably absent, Xi ticked off a list of trade deals that China has advanced with partners like the European Union, South Korea, Japan and African countries. China, he added, was fully committed to multinational organizations like the Group of 20 and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation group.
At times, Xi appeared to also address his domestic audience. With China this winter approaching the 40-year anniversary of the introduction of the “Reform and Opening Up” movement launched by Deng Xiaoping, some intellectuals and political elite have wondered whether his administration has rolled back some of those market-oriented reforms while assuming a bigger role in the private sector.
The path of reform and opening up was precisely what launched China to success, Xi said, adding: “China succeeded in turning a closed and semi-closed economy to a fully open economy.”
The conference was attended by more than 3,600 companies including representatives from U.S. giants like General Electric and Ford, according to Chinese state media.
Although Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and Imran Khan, the newly elected leader of Pakistan, were in attendance, the event didn’t pull high-level delegates from many other developed countries.
The U.S. government said it had no plans for “high-level participation” in the Shanghai expo.
“We encourage China to level the playing field for U.S. goods and services,” the U.S. Embassy in Beijing said in a statement. “China needs to make the necessary reforms to end its unfair trade practices that are harming the world economy.”
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