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Chinese leader Xi Jinping has visited Shanghai for the first time in three years as his government steps up efforts to boost the country’s economy and money markets.
Xi held Tuesday and Wednesday and visited the Shanghai Futures Exchange, a generational exhibition at the Zhangjiang High-Tech Park and a network of government-subsidized rental housing, according to the official Xinhua news agency.
He was accompanied by top government officials, including Vice Premier He Lifeng and Cai Qi, his chief of staff.
The visit, the first since 2020, comes at a time when business confidence in China is waning and foreign corporations are pulling out of the country. The world’s second-largest economy is stagnant after decades of immediate expansion. It faces a variety of problems, including a housing crisis, record youth unemployment, indebted local governments, and an aging population.
Beijing’s close and tense trade relations with the West are scaring away foreign investors. China’s foreign direct investment indicator turned negative for the first time since 1998.
On Thursday, data released by the government showed the official manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index slipped to 49.4 in November from 49.5 in October, signalling a further contraction in factory output. Last month, the PMI unexpectedly shrank from September amid weak demand.
“General Secretary Xi Jinping’s visit to Shanghai sends vital signals at a critical time,” a Xinhua editorial said on Thursday.
“Finance should better serve the real economy,” it said, adding that Xi’s inspection of the Shanghai Futures Exchange showed his “high priority and ardent expectations” towards building China into a financial powerhouse.
Xi’s visit to the sci-tech exhibition highlighted the “core position” of scientific and technological innovation in the overall development of the country, the commentary said. The president was seen inspecting a walking humanoid robot at the sci-tech exhibition, according to a video posted by state television CCTV.
“Shanghai will be a vanguard of the country’s reform and opening-up and a pioneer in its innovation and technological development,” Xi was quoted as saying by Xinhua.
In recent months, Xi’s government has ramped up efforts to promote growth and stabilize the financial markets.
In September, regulators relaxed capital controls in Beijing and Shanghai to entice foreign investment. In October, the parliament approved one trillion yuan ($138 billion) in additional sovereign debt intended for infrastructure spending.
On Monday, Xi held a leaders’ assembly in Beijing, where rules were laid out on how to give more publicity to the advance of the Yangtze River economic belt, a domain that includes Shanghai and 10 other provinces and cities along the Yangtze River. The region accounts for 47% of China’s GDP and more than 40% of its population.
Earlier this month, Xi visited the United States for the first time in more than six years, where he met with President Joe Biden to replace relations between the two countries. At a meeting of the most sensible U. S. business executives, Xi pledged to reduce them. It is difficult for foreigners to invest and do business in his country and he promised to create “a world-class business environment. “
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