On April 10th, President Xi Jinping delivered a keynote speech at the Boao forum for Asia, an annual conference considered to be the “Asian Davos”. Amid deteriorating relations with the US, the Chinese leader reiterated plans to open China further. Firstly, he announced that China will open further its financial and manufacturing sectors to foreign investors. This includes the removal of foreign ownership limit on banks, relaxed rules for foreign companies investing in local securities ventures, in insurance and in the manufacturing sector. Secondly, the authorities plan to improve legal intellectual property protection for overseas companies with the restructuration of the State Intellectual Property Office. Thirdly, China will step up measures to support imports by slashing tariffs for consumer related goods such as vehicles. Overall, nothing was really new as most of these measures were already announced last year, and reiterated at this year National People’s Congress. Yet, the conciliatory tone of the Chinese president helps ease fears of a trade war for now.
