US firms make active moves in China, highlighting the allure of China's open market

US electric vehicle giant Tesla on Tuesday introduced the much-anticipated enhanced Autopilot feature for urban roads in China, joining a number of US companies that recently stepped up their moves in the world's second-largest economy, reflecting that American companies are voting with their feet in prospects of the Chinese market amid the country's continuous opening-up and huge market potential despite the Trump administration's protectionist practices.

Tesla announced on Tuesday that it has begun rolling out software updates for Chinese Tesla car owners in stages, introducing an Autopilot feature for urban roads, which is said to enhance the existing Navigate on Autopilot (NOA) driver-assistance system.

With the software updates, it will guide Tesla cars to exit ramps and intersections according to the navigation route. At intersections, the system recognizes traffic lights and can proceed straight, turn left or right, or make U-turns. It will also automatically change lanes according to the speed and the selected route. If no navigation route is set, it selects the optimal path based on real-time road conditions, according to the upgrade notifications. Tesla also confirmed with the Global Times about the updates.

The move highlights the company's significant attention to the Chinese market which is at the forefront of the development of new-energy vehicles and intelligent driving technology, boasting a large consumer base and an advanced technological ecosystem, Zhang Xiang, director of the Digital Automotive International Cooperation Research Center of the World Digital Economy Forum, told the Global Times.

By promoting software updates, Tesla aims to maintain competitiveness in the Chinese market and meet the growing demand from Chinese consumers for intelligent driving solutions, Zhang said.

Tesla's move coincides with multiple US firms actively reinforcing their Chinese market positions.

Apple launched an official account on the Chinese social media platform WeChat for developers on Tuesday. The account, named AppleDeveloperGC, will provide readers with the latest news, announcements, and event updates specifically for the Chinese developer community.

The move came after Apple said on its official WeChat on Friday that Apple Intelligence will soon be available in more languages, including simplified Chinese in April.

A spokesperson from Starbucks told the Global Times on Tuesday that Starbucks is firmly optimistic about the vast potential of the Chinese market and stressed that employees in China are not included in Starbucks' recent global workforce adjustment in response to media reports that Starbucks plans to lay off 1,100 corporate employees.

According to company data tracking platform Tianyancha, recently, Burger King (China) Investment Co has undergone business registration changes, with its registered capital increasing from approximately $310 million to approximately $410 million.

The moves from these US firms show that they are willing to expand in the Chinese market, and are confident in its economic outlook and business environment. Expanding investment in China allows enterprises to gain substantial profits and enhance their global market status and reputation, Gao Lingyun, an expert at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

On February 19, China issued an action plan to stabilize foreign investment in 2025. Per the plan, China will support pilot regions in implementing opening-up policies related to such areas as value-added telecommunication, biotechnology, and wholly foreign-owned hospitals, providing whole-journey services for foreign-invested projects in these sectors. The country will continue expanding its pilot programs to open up fields such as telecommunication and medical services in a timely manner, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

This series of measures reflects the openness of the Chinese market and its strong appeal to global enterprises including the US firms, Gao said.

In 2024, 59,080 new foreign-invested enterprises were established in China, up 9.9 percent year-on-year. China attracted an annual overseas investment of over 1 trillion yuan ($139.5 billion) for three consecutive years from 2021 to 2023, according to Xinhua.

Against US protectionism

In contrast, the US has never ceased its trade protectionist practices and continued to roll out restrictive measures against China.

In the latest evidence, US President Donald Trump on Friday signed a memorandum called "America First Investment Policy," directing the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) to curb Chinese investments in strategic sectors, including "technology, critical infrastructure, healthcare, agriculture, energy, raw materials, and others," according to a fact sheet released on the White House official website on Friday.

The Trump administration will also consider new or expanded restrictions on US outbound investment to China in sensitive technologies, according to the fact sheet.

The US "America First Investment Policy" memorandum seriously affects normal economic and trade cooperation between Chinese and US enterprises, a spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said Saturday.

The move, which generalizes the national security concept, is discriminatory and a "typical non-market practice," the spokesperson said.

Many US business associations and enterprises have already expressed concerns that restrictions on US investment in China will lead to US enterprises losing the Chinese market to other competitors, the spokesperson added.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian also said on Monday that the increasing restrictions on US investments in China are a deliberate interference with the independent decision-making of US companies and distortion of investments between the two countries. By shutting out Chinese companies and the Chinese market, the US will end up hurting its own economic interests and international credibility, Lin said.

The fact that many American companies are expanding their operations in China reflects their willingness to cooperate with China despite US trade protectionism, Lyu Xiang, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said on Tuesday.

"In the face of the US' long-standing trade protectionism against China, there is a significant conflict of interest between American enterprises and some politicians in the US government. Truly multinational corporations are bound to cooperate with China in order to stabilize their market positions," Lyu said.

In the short term, the US restriction will indeed pose challenges for businesses, which will need time to devise coping strategies. However, in the long term, companies often find legitimate ways to circumvent or minimize the impact of these policy restrictions, significantly diminishing the actual effectiveness of such measures, Gao said.

"After all, globalization and open connectivity are trends of the time, and these restrictive policies are against the tide and ultimately won't be able to hinder the ongoing advancement of China-US economic and trade cooperation," Gao added.