Illustration: Chen Xia/Global Times

Saudi Aramco Chief Executive Amin Nasser was quoted as saying on Sunday that the oil giant was looking at further opportunities to invest in China, underscoring the attractiveness of the Chinese market.

Aramco has been ramping up its China presence in a string of deals in refining and petrochemicals, according to Reuters. From the perspective of Aramco, China is a critical and growing market. It is no surprise that the oil giant has been shopping for stakes in Chinese refining and petrochemical projects in the upstream and downstream industry chains.

Recently, some Western media outlets have run reports about "foreign capital leaving China," which constitute a new round of smearing China's economy with a sinister intention. By making noise about and hyping decoupling, some Western forces want to disrupt China's development, but that will be futile in the end, because they ignore one fact: China's huge market is a magnet for foreign enterprises like Aramco.

China's economic growth has generated a big appetite for energy. Full-year crude oil imports hit an all-time high in 2023, climbing 11 percent year-on-year, as demand recovered from a pandemic-induced slump. China is a very important market for Aramco, the world's largest integrated oil and natural gas company.

Aramco reported on Sunday a net income of $121.3 billion in 2023, a 24.7 percent fall from its 2022 record due to lower oil prices. According to Bloomberg, Saudi Arabia has worked out plans to allocate more than one-third of its oil output to chemical production by 2030 in a bid to squeeze more value from its barrels as the world shifts toward a low-carbon economy.

The oil giant aims to convert 4 million barrels per day into higher-value products such as plastics and fertilizers by the end of the decade, the report said.

Analysts said that it's a landmark shift that requires huge investment in its refining and petrochemicals facilities, and China, an important market for Aramco, is a favorable investment destination. As reported by Reuters, Nasser said the country's refineries are among those with the highest conversion rates and Aramco was looking at further opportunities for investment.

Chinese officials have repeatedly stressed that foreign investment is welcome and the door to China will only open further. In the face of the deliberate repression by the US, China's foreign investment faces some short-term challenges but the government is taking measures to continue to foster a world-class business environment that is market-oriented, law-based and internationalized.

China is the largest trading partner of many countries. A large number of foreign enterprises regard the world's second-largest economy as their priority market. But this is not the whole story. More and more enterprises are no longer satisfied with just exporting their products to the Chinese market. They also hope to expand their industrial chains to China, produce higher added-value goods, enjoy China's manufacturing advantages and make more profits.

By combining China's market advantages with its manufacturing advantages, China's continuously improving business environment has attracted many foreign companies. It has become an important and effective way for China to attract foreign investment.

The Chinese government is accelerating the introduction of a series of policies to stabilize foreign trade and investment. The country has an enormous market, complete industrial chains and abundant human resources. China has comprehensive advantages in attracting foreign investment despite fierce global competition and intensifying US containment. 

China's commitment to high-standard opening-up and an improved business environment will help the world's second-largest economy transform its market advantages into a strategic tool to attract foreign investment, resisting the US push for decoupling.

The author is a reporter with the Global Times. bizopinion@globaltimes.com.cn