Apple CEO Tim Cook waves to crowds as he attends the opening ceremony of a new flagship store in Shanghai on March 21, 2024. It is the second-largest Apple flagship store after the one on Fifth Avenue in New York City. Cook also took pictures with customers on site and signed autographs. Photo: Chen Xia/GT

Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao met with global executives including Apple CEO Tim Cook, Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon and Visa Inc CEO Ryan McInerney ahead of an annual international event in Beijing, underscoring China's commitment to expand high-level opening-up in a bid to boost foreign investment and provide more development opportunities for global businesses.

Global CEOs gathered in Beijing to attend the China Development Forum, an annual high-level event hosted by the Development Research Center of the State Council, China's cabinet, to discuss crucial topics.

Despite Western media outlets' bad-mouthing of the Chinese economy as well as an increasingly complex global economic situation, intensive visits by global CEOs to China fully reflect their enthusiasm to share China's opportunities and their confidence in China's investment prospects, analysts said on Sunday.

During Wang's meeting with Amon on Saturday, both sides exchanged views on China-US trade and economic relations and the company's development in China, according to a press release on the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) website.

Wang stressed that the Chinese government is committed to improving the business environment and serving foreign enterprises' investment and operations in the market.

China is accelerating the development of innovation-led new quality productive forces and has broad prospects in high-tech fields such as artificial intelligence and cloud computing, which means great opportunities for enterprises from all over the world including Qualcomm, said the Chinese commerce minister.

The high-tech industry requires close cooperation by all countries, and Qualcomm expects the US and Chinese governments can create a stable, predictable and sound business environment for companies from both countries, Amon said, noting that Qualcomm will continue to carry out innovation cooperation with its Chinese partners.

Cook said on Friday in Beijing that China is an important market and a key supply chain partner for Apple due to its rich talent resources and strong innovation vitality, according to a separate press release by the MOFCOM.

Apple remains committed to long-term development in China and will continue to increase investment in the supply chain, research and development, and sales in the country, Cook said.

If foreign enterprises miss the opportunities of the vast Chinese market by not setting up businesses or increasing investment, they will regret that sooner or later, Wei Jianguo, former Chinese vice minister of commerce and executive deputy director of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges, told the Global Times.

China has notable advantages in attracting foreign investment, Wei said, noting that China has the most complete industrial chains in the world and thus manufacturing costs are low.

China is one of countries whose political and economic environment is stable, and whose economy is resilient. As a result, few countries could provide a bigger market than China, Li Yong, a senior research fellow at the China Association of International Trade, told the Global Times on Sunday.

In order to steadily promote high-level opening-up and make greater efforts to attract and utilize foreign investment, the General Office of the State Council issued an action plan on March 19. The action plan proposes 24 measures across five aspects - expanding market access, enhancing appeal to foreign investment, fostering a level playing field, facilitating the flow of innovation factors and better aligning domestic rules with high-standard international economic and trade rules.

In the process of building the brand of "Investing in China," the country will accelerate institutional opening-up and reform in order to keep China as a popular destination for foreign investment, Wei said, noting that more policies are expected in this regard, with the action plan setting a good example.

Foreign enterprises remain bullish on the prospects of the Chinese market. In 2023, the number of newly established foreign-invested enterprises reached 53,766, up 39.7 percent year-on-year, official data showed.

Recently, foreign enterprises, including those from the US, have been actively investing in China. For example, Apple opened a new store in downtown Shanghai on Thursday, and it also announced a plan to open a new research and development (R&D) center in Shenzhen city, South China's Guangdong Province and upgrade its Shanghai R&D center to support product manufacturing.

"Indeed, certain Western companies have been forced to withdraw from the Chinese market due to political interference led by the US, but it will eventually turn out to be unwise," Li said, noting that they will see their profits decline without the huge market.