DCCC's Main Takeaways from CCPIT Symposium

China Council for Promotion of International Trade 70th Anniversary Symposium,18-19th May 2022

Last week DCCC was invited as one of 23 international Business and Chamber delegates for the Symposium on the 70th Anniversary of CCPIT featuring speeches by Premier Li Keqiang 李克强, Vice Premier Hu Chunhua 胡春华 and CCPIT Chairman Ren Hongbin 任鸿斌.

DCCC All China Secretary and DCCC North Chairman Mathias Boyer represented DCCC at the meeting. Here are his main takeaways from Premier Li´s speech:

Statement: “The World is undergoing profound challenges and changes impacting trade. COVID and geopolitics are the main cause.”

Comment: It was clear that the mood was somewhat subdued. China finds itself between a rock and a hard place when it comes to the Omicron outbreak. At the same time, geopolitical and anti-China sentiment in the US is on the rise and the war in Ukraine has put China in a difficult diplomatic bind where it would like to see a strong Russia as a counterbalance to expanding NATO influence in Europe but at the same recognizes that trade with the EU is of significant importance to China. China does not distinguish the intentions of the US with that of EU and fails to recognize the independent-minded nature of European Countries.

Statement: “People's to people's exchange and trade is an enabler of increase in living standards for the Chinese people. Trade is a mechanism to keep peace during turbulent times. Humanity shares a common civilisation. Let us use free, global rules-based trade based on a level playing field to promote better lives for all of our people. Trade must be win-win.”

Comment: This part of the speech was reminiscent of President Xi Jinping's speech to Davos on 25 January 2021 where he emphasised principles of multilateralism should be upheld to realise sustainable development. Premier Li acknowledged that without travel and with borders continuously closed “People's to People's exchange” is greatly challenged.

Statement: “China is still a developing country with huge space to upgrade consumption and manufacturing. China lacks raw materials and advanced equipment to reach modernisation of its economy and is therefore dependent on trade to reach a prosperous society. China is an importing country and will continue to import more and more agricultural products in the years to come.”

Comment: With a GDP per capita of 10,438 USD (World Bank 2020 Current US$) China is technically a developing country. As China's economy continues to grow there will be significant export opportunities from EU to China. Premier Li wanted to remind the business community that despite this COVID lockdown that is having significant impact on people's lives, trade with the rest of the world will still be necessary in the years to come.

Statement: “The Chinese Government is ready to have a dialogue with foreign businesses in China. We have been and we are still listening carefully to all of your viewpoints and your complaints. We understand that foreign businesses have encountered significant hinderances. This moment is a difficult moment, this is a special moment. If you encounter difficulties, we are ready to help. We need to pull together and work together. Business needs to keep running. We welcome companies to list their concerns. We will help create access to China for foreign professionals to return to China. When it comes to health and COVID restrictions, we are committed to strike a good balance.”

Comment: This was the most relevant part of the speech to foreign companies in China. Not only did Premier Li acknowledge the difficulty brought on by current COVID policies, he welcomed specific input on concrete issues causing trouble for companies in China. Also, in particular on the foreign professionals returning to China, he suggested that they would be very happy to assist with this.

DCCC members have for the last 24 months been facing difficulties in bringing in expat professionals and their families to China. While DCCC cannot guarantee that this time around will see a significant change, but it seems as a good opportunity to address this issue.

Statement: “CCPIT is instructed to create a special needs task force to address all issues foreign companies are facing; any and all concerns relating to COVID response and economic difficulties. China must continue opening up in order to realize modernisation of the Chinese Economy. China must partner with foreign companies to improve trade in China. China is committed to and is currently undergoing a reform of its government functions to secure a world class rules-based economy. We need to know all the challenges you face and all the unfairness you are experiencing in China to reach win-win trade!”

Comment: This part of the speech was the most impassioned part. Clearly Premier Li Keqiang wanted to emphasise this point towards the participants. The comment on undergoing reform of government functions came a bit as a surprise and combined with the announcement of the new function of the CCPIT Task force while still ambiguous, seems to suggest that CCPIT has been bestowed with new power and responsibilities to help out foreign companies in China in this difficult time.

 DCCC Advocacy

CCPIT was the official sponsor of DCCC´s application to the Ministry of Civil Affairs in the year 2000 and as such our initiation to this event reaffirms our close relationship to CCPIT. DCCC will in the coming weeks be hosting our first C-Table for C-suite members of All China DCCC member organisations, where we will analyse the impact for Danish Business in China. In the coming months DCCC will work on establishing a continued dialogue with CCPIT on the issues that our companies are facing.

If you are interested in the All China Membership or advocacy efforts, please contact our Secretary General Anna Lin Yip on anna@dccc.com.cn. If your company is facing a specific problem in relation to the national COVID response or related economic issues in general please specify your issues in detail and request a meeting with the DCCC secretariat to discuss further.