BEIJING -- Chinese President Xi Jinping promised foreign companies greater access to China's huge market and more than $100 billion in new financing for other developing economies as he opened a forum Wednesday on his signature Belt and Road infrastructure initiative.
Xi's initiative has built power plants, roads, railroads and ports around the world and deepened China's ties with Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Mideast. But the massive loans backing the projects have burdened poorer countries with heavy debts, in some cases leading to China taking control of those assets.
At the forum's opening ceremony at the ornate and cavernous Great Hall of the People, Xi promised that two Chinese-backed development banks -- the China Development Bank and the Export-Import Bank of China -- will each set up $47.9 billion financing windows. An additional $11 billion will be invested in Beijing's Silk Road Fund to support BRI projects.
"We will comprehensively remove restrictions on foreign investment access in the manufacturing sector," Xi said. He said China would further open up "cross-border trade and investment in services and expand market access for digital products" and carry out reforms of state-owned enterprises and in sectors such as the digital economy, intellectual property rights and government procurement.
The pledges of hefty support from Beijing come at a time when China's economy has slowed and foreign investment has plunged.
Xi alluded to efforts by the United States and its allies to reduce their reliance on Chinese manufacturing and supply chains amid heightened competition and diplomatic frictions and reiterated promises that Beijing would create a fairer environment for foreign firms.
"We do not engage in ideological confrontation, geopolitical games nor clique political confrontation," Xi said. "We oppose unilateral sanctions, economic coercion and the decoupling and severance of chains," a reference to moves elsewhere to diversify industrial supply chains.
Reiterating Chinese complaints that such moves are meant to limit China's growth, Xi said that "viewing others' development as a threat or taking economic interdependence as a risk will not make one's own life better or speed up one's development."
"China can only do well when the world is doing well," he said. "When China does well, the world will get even better."
Representatives from more than 130 mostly developing countries are attending the forum, including at least 20 heads of state and government. Russian President Vladimir Putin is attending, reflecting China's economic and diplomatic support for Moscow amid the isolation brought by its war in Ukraine.
Addressing the forum right after Xi, Putin praised BRI as being "truly important, global, future-oriented, aimed at creating more equitable, multipolar world relations."
"This is truly a global plan," he said, adding that it aligns with Russia's plan "to form a large Eurasian space, as a space of cooperation and interaction of like-minded people, where a variety of integration processes will be linked." He referred to other regional organizations, such as the security-oriented Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations or ASEAN, and the Eurasian Economic Union of former Soviet states.
Several European officials including the French and Italian ambassadors to China and former French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin walked out while Putin spoke and returned afterward.
On Tuesday, Putin met with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who is the sole European Union government leader attending the forum. Their meeting was a rare instance of the Russian president meeting a European leader since the start of Russia's war in Ukraine in February 2022.
Putin met with Xi after the opening ceremony as concerns grow about possible conflicts with the West over Moscow's invasion of Ukraine and Beijing's rising threats against Taiwan.
"In the current difficult conditions, close foreign policy coordination is especially required," Putin said in his opening remarks.
"So, in terms of bilateral relations, we are moving forward very confidently," he said, noting that bilateral trade was on track to surpass a record $200 billion this year.
China is a key customer for Russian oil and gas, providing Moscow with an economic lifeline in the face of punishing Western sanctions imposed over its campaign against Ukraine.
Information for this article was contributed by Simina Mistreanu, Wanqing Chen, Ken Moritsugu, Jim Heintz and staff writers of The Associated Press
Gallery: Xi opens Beijing economic forum
