President Xi visited Shanghai after his conference with President Biden in order to increase corporate confidence

 President Xi visited Shanghai after his conference with President Biden in order to increase corporate confidence

Xi's overemphasis on security matters has eroded corporate confidence, according to observers, and is a major contributing factor to China's present economic woes.

Chinese President Xi Jinping with US President Joe Biden

Tuesday is anticipated to be Chinese President Xi Jinping's first trip to Shanghai, the commercial center of the Communist powerhouse. This comes just days after his highly publicized visit to the US, during which he pledged to "break down barriers" in response to dwindling foreign investment in China. did.

Xi, 70, will visit Shanghai, Hong Kong's economic center, on Tuesday after chairing the influential Politburo meeting of the governing Communist Party on Monday to discuss guidelines for policies and actions to support high-quality development in the nation. He's coming for the first time. According to the South China Morning Post, headquartered in Kong. Shanghai is home to some of the largest foreign investments in China, which includes Tesla, General Motors, Walt Disney, along with the 10-year-old Shanghai Free Trade Zones (FTZ), a testing ground for China's economic reforms. a combination of a population of over 25 million, Shanghai accounts for nearly four percent of China's economic output.

Xi's visit to the city, which was severely damaged by a strict two-month COVID-19 lockdown in 2022, during which its citizens were forced to remain inside their houses according to Xi's "zero COVID" policy, has not, however, been officially announced. was constrained. After the city was severely affected by the COVID-19 Omicron version for over eight months, the lockdown was implemented. The second-biggest economy in the world has been severely impacted since 2021 by protracted lockdowns in a number of cities. These lockdowns have made China's economic issues worse and disrupted business, especially in the once-booming real estate industry. Self-assurance has diminished.

Following a successful trip to the US this month, when he conducted a "strategic and historic" meeting with US President Joe Biden, during which both leaders reaffirmed their hard-line policies, comes Xi's first visit to Shanghai, where he was formerly the head of the CPC. agreed to cut back. and discourse directed at one another. In his speech at the APEC CEO meeting in San Francisco earlier this month, Xi made the heartfelt pledge to remove obstacles to foreign investment, even as his summit aroused rumors of a slight change in the US-China power balance. pledged to do initiatives to attract international investment. "We will strive to remove barriers to the flow of innovation factors, deepen the overhaul of the digital economy, as well as promote the free and orderly flow of data while complying with the law," he said in his address. China's supply chain is about to change.

Ding Haifeng, a consultant for Shanghai finance, said that while in Shanghai, Xi pushed municipal authorities to increase cross-border money flows and commerce via the gateway city of the mainland amid mounting worries about China's isolation from the West. It is anticipated that increasing flows would promote more market deregulation. stated Integrity, a consulting business. "After the top leader's visit, Shanghai's role as an economic locomotive will be further highlighted," he told the Post. Xi's overemphasis on security matters has eroded corporate confidence, according to observers, and is a major contributing factor to China's present economic woes. But during the last five years, security concerns have taken precedence, according to Post writer Wang Jiangwei.

Wang wrote in his column in the Post on Monday that while Xi spoke about pursuing growth as the primary goal of government in his keynote address at the 20th Communist Party National Congress last year, he spent far more time on social stability and national security. "But, in fact, restoring economic strength and the trust needed of both local and foreign companies is a far greater challenge for China's leadership, not merely because Xi has become the country's most powerful leader in several decades after eliminating all other parties from power. "has strengthened its position as." said Wang.

"China's leadership should take advantage of the current uneasy peace that the country and the US are heading toward to better strike a balance between security and growth. To really make development the focal point of government, new initiatives are needed."We must put in our best effort," he said.