Xi urges global CEOs to safeguard trade and supply chains

Chinese President Xi Jinping, in a meeting with a group of executives including Rajesh Subramaniam from FedEx and Bill Winters from Standard Chartered, called on global business leaders to work together to protect supply chains.

Amid a deepening trade war with the US, the Chinese leader told the group of foreign business leaders, including Pascal Soriot from AstraZeneca and Miguel Ángel López Borrego from Thyssenkrupp, that they should resist behaviors that “turn back” history.

Speaking at the meeting held in Beijing on Friday, Xi said, “We hope everyone will have a broad and long-term perspective and not blindly follow actions that disrupt the security and stability of global industrial and supply chains, but instead add more positive energy and certainty to global development.”

The event at the Great Hall of the People marked the second consecutive year that Xi held a carefully arranged meeting with foreign CEOs in the Chinese capital. Last year’s event involved only US business leaders.

The meeting took place at the end of a busy week for Chinese policymakers, who are striving to strengthen relations with the international business community amid rising tensions with the administration of US President Donald Trump.

China’s leading annual CEO conference, the China Development Forum, was held earlier this week in Beijing, followed by the Boao Forum for Asia on the tropical resort island of Hainan.

Beijing is trying to present itself as a bastion of stability in global trade, in contrast to the US, where Trump has launched successive waves of tariffs on many products, from aluminum to automobiles.

Trump pledged on April 2 to impose broad and reciprocal taxes on US trade partners.