Photo: VCG

World's biggest investment group BlackRock has obtained approval to start operating a wealth management business in China, another landmark event for the opening of China's financial sector to foreign businesses that has attracted widespread market attention.

As China continues to opens up its financial sector as part of an overall opening-up expansion drive, major banks and institutional investors from the US and other countries have moved quickly to seize opportunities in the Chinese market. Citigroup Inc last month pushed for the establishment of a new investment bank in China. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley have been approved to take majority control of their securities businesses in China. 

BlackRock has long been seeking to gain a foothold in China's huge financial market. With the official approval of its wealth management business in China, the company has joined the ranks of many international financial institutions entering the fast-growing and promising Chinese market.

It is remarkable that major US financial giants have increased their investment in China, even as the relentless political suppression and restrictions from the US government have severely hit bilateral economic, trade and investment relations.

This fully proves that as China maintains economic development despite the COVID-19 pandemic and opens up to the outside world, the Chinese market has become increasingly appealing for foreign companies. And despite the arbitrary suppression on Chinese companies by the US, China is constantly opening its market to US businesses.

Statistics show that the Trump administration's trade war and suppression of Chinese companies have severely damaged two-way investments. After a peak in 2016, China's direct investment to the US has plummeted and continued to decline since then. In 2020, Chinese investment in the US stood at only $4.7 billion, one-tenth of the 2016 peak, data from Rhodium's China Investment Monitor program showed.

In stark comparison, Rhodium's data shows that US direct investment in China have remain stable and even increased in recent years, even though former US President Donald Trump ordered US companies to ditch China

Last year, after China effectively put the epidemic under control and started its economic recovery, foreign investors have increased investments in Chinese assets. A relevant study shows that in 2020, US institutional investors poured $ 210 billion into Chinese bond market.

But despite rising US investment in China, some US officials and media outlets have claimed that China has not fulfilled its commitment to improve business environment. 

But numbers don't lie. The choices made by US financial giants with real money are more illustrative. To US investors who are coming to the China market, China remains open and welcoming. Although China opposes the US government's wrong trade and investment policy, it does not oppose cooperation between Chinese and US companies. On the contrary, China encourages such cooperation.

Now the Biden administration needs to make political adjustments as soon as possible to correct the mistakes of the Trump administration. Whether China and the US can improve trade and investment ties depends on whether the US can make timely rectification. If it fails to do so and continues to follow Trump's footsteps, the US is only headed for more failures.  Reality over the past few years has proved that the US trade war against China has failed, and that the suppression of investment in China is failing. Its blockade on China's technology development will inevitably fall as well, if the Biden Administration refuses to change the wrong policy.

The author is former economic and commercial counselor at the Chinese Consulates General in San Francisco and New York, and senior fellow of the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University of China. bizopinion@globaltimes.com.cn