Chinese President Xi Jinping will visit Shanghai on Tuesday in his first trip to the financial hub since a bruising two-month Covid lockdown, the South China Morning Post reported.
Xi is scheduled to visit the Shanghai Futures Exchange as well as several technology companies operating in the city, the Post reported, citing several unidentified people familiar with the matter. The Monday report didn’t specify any of the firms on his agenda.
The Chinese leader is scheduled to stay in Shanghai for three days, the Post reported, citing people familiar with the plans. He is expected to encourage city officials to boost market liberalization efforts in order to spur cross-border trade and capital flows.
Xi’s trip to Shanghai will send a strong signal about his determination to boost private sector confidence in the nation’s slowing economy after its difficult exit from the pandemic. The Chinese leader vowed earlier this month to make life easier for foreign investors, at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco.
Xi’s attempts to woo foreign capital have hit skepticism. A measure of foreign investment into China turned negative for the first time since records began in 1998 in the third quarter, according to data released earlier this month. Strict Covid controls, geopolitical turmoil with the US and an increasing expansive push to secure national security have also dented investor confidence.
China locked down Shanghai for more than 60 days last year to contain the coronavirus. The city of 25 million was among the dozens around the country that experienced protests in late 2022 partly due to discontent with Covid measures.
Chinese stocks led losses in Asia on Monday, with the CSI 300 Index down about 1% in afternoon trading. Foreign investors were poised to be net sellers of onshore equities for a second consecutive session as sentiment remained fragile amid the nation’s faltering economic recovery.
Xi’s visit to tech companies will likely be closely watched for further policy signs, after China earlier this year signaled an end to a crackdown that wiped out billions in market value from that sector.
Shanghai is an important base of operations and major outpost to some of China’s biggest tech and private sector operations. Companies that call the financial and tech metropolis home include Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. — the chipmaker at the heart of Huawei Technologies Co.’s burgeoning tech ambitions, whose 7nm processor was hailed as a major triumph over years of US sanctions.
Other major outfits with offices in the city include AI firm SenseTime Group Inc., which has approval to roll out large-language models to the public, and e-commerce upstart PDD Holdings Inc.
Xi’s trip visit coincides with the 10-year anniversary of the Shanghai free-trade zone.
--With assistance from Iris Ouyang, Edwin Chan and Zhu Lin.
(Updates throughout.)