Beijing goes on charm offensive

PRC's push for greater foreign investment clashes with its recent actions in a global business deal

Welcome back to What’s Happening in China, your weekly China brief.

I hope you’ve had a great week.

As part of an effort to reverse last year’s record foreign direct investment outflows and project itself as a responsible global power, the PRC put on a charm offensive this week. It hosted the China Development Forum in Beijing, where Vice Premier He Lifeng promised foreign business leaders greater market access; the Boao Forum for Asia in Hainan province, where Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang pledged stronger economic policy support and called for opposition to trade and investment protectionism; and finally, on Friday, Xi Jinping met with global executives, making a case for investing in the country by declaring, “Investing in China is investing in the future.”

It’s no coincidence that this same week, all Mintz employees detained since the March 2023 raid on its Beijing office were released after two years. The crackdown on consultancy and due diligence firms at the time sent a chilling mess…