China has not collapsed in past because of ‘China collapse’ theory; it will not peak now because of ‘Peak China’ rhetoric: Xi

China’s development has gone through all sorts of difficulties and challenges to get to where it is today. It has not collapsed in the past because of the “China collapse” theory, and it will not peak now because of the “Peak China” rhetoric, Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Wednesday.

Xi made the remarks when he met with representatives of the American business, strategic and academic communities in Beijing on the day.

The meeting came amid a series of high-level events, including the just-concluded China Development Forum 2024 in Beijing and the ongoing Boao Forum for Asia in South China's Hainan Province, all of which demonstrate the country’s commitment to expanding high-level opening-up and its willingness to enhance cooperation, in contrast to the unilateral moves taken by the Biden administration under the call to “decouple.”

"China's economy is healthy and sustainable," Xi said, noting that China's growth rate was one of the fastest among major economies last year.

Xi said China is planning and implementing a series of major measures to comprehensively deepen reform, foster a world-class business environment that is market-oriented, law-based and internationalized, and provide broader development space for international businesses, including US companies.

In the current situation, the common interests of China and the US are not diminishing, but increasing. Whether in traditional areas such as trade and agriculture or emerging areas such as climate change and artificial intelligence, China and the US should be boosters of each other’s development, not drags on the process.

Promoting the recovery of the world economy and resolving international and regional hotspot issues requires China and the US to coordinate and cooperate, show the mind-set of great powers and take up the roles of great powers, Xi said.

Chairman of the National Committee on US-China Relations Evan G. Greenberg; Craig Allen, president of the US-China Business Council; Stephen Schwarzman, co-founder and CEO of private equity firm Blackstone, and Cristiano Amon, CEO of Qualcomm, were among the US business executives attending the meeting.

The US companies appreciated China’s recent introduction of a series of important initiatives to further reform and opening-up, expressing their optimism about the prospects for the country’s economic development. They said that they will unswervingly continue to explore the Chinese market, and develop a long-term close cooperative relationship with China.