- Executives flock to Beijing at start of a forum-filled week
- China’s premier offers little new on policy steps amid angst
China’s efforts to counter the downbeat narrative about a structural slowdown in the world’s second-biggest economy got a boost from enthusiastic endorsements from chief executives of top global companies.
Days after he opened an expansive new retail store in Shanghai and pledged a fresh investment in applied research in the country, Apple Inc. Chief Executive Tim Cook on Sunday gushed, “I love it here, I love the Chinese people.”
“It’s so vibrant and so dynamic here,” Cook told journalists as he entered the opening session of the China Development Forum, a top annual gathering of business leaders and Chinese officials. Apple has faced expanding restrictions on iPhone use at government agencies and state-backed companies and sales of the smartphone tumbled 24% in the first six weeks of the year.
The CDF confab is one of a series this week that offer China a chance to rekindle overseas interest in the nation after an historic slump in foreign investment.