China vows better business conditions, top Japan lobby says

China pledged to improve the environment for foreign firms, the head of Japan’s biggest business lobby said after a sitdown meeting with Premier Li Qiang, a sign of Beijing’s latest effort to lift sentiment.

“It was a meaningful meeting,” Masakazu Tokura, chairman of the Japan business federation known as Keidanren, told reporters in Beijing.

Mr Li talked about the friendship between Japan and China, and said the Ministry of Commerce is leading efforts to improve business conditions, according to Mr Tokura.

Beijing has pushed in recent months to lure foreign investment back, with President Xi Jinping’s government pledging more “heart warming” steps, such as making it easier for foreign nationals to obtain visas, and facilitating their access to financial and electronic payment services.

This comes as a measure of foreign investment into China turned negative in the third quarter of last year for the first time since at least 1998, adding to the challenges the economy faces, including slowing growth and deflation.

Japan is one of the biggest foreign investors in China and the group of about 200 Japanese executives is in Beijing to meet with Chinese leaders and officials to discuss economic relations. Japanese investment has slowed the last few years, with the pandemic, diplomatic tensions and the arrest of a Japanese businessman last year all contributing to the weakening of ties.

The delegation met with officials from the National Development and Reform Commission on Wednesday, and it is scheduled to meet Commerce Minister Wang Wentao later on Thursday. Li told the visitors that the ministry is making efforts to listen to foreign companies, said Ken Kobayashi, a member of the delegation.

The group asked that China one again allow Japanese nationals visa-free entry, which was in place before the pandemic, according to officials from the Japan-China Economic Association, who briefed journalists after the discussion. Li said people-to people exchanges were important but called for reciprocity, they added.

In the past year, China has allowed the citizens of at least 11 countries to enter without a visa, mostly via unilateral decisions that didn’t gain its citizens the same right. Beijing has asked Tokyo to allow visa-free entry to its citizens as a condition of granting it to Japan, according to Japanese media outlets.

In the roughly hourlong meeting, the Japanese representatives raised a number of thorny issues, including concern about the safety of the nation’s citizens in China and bans on the import of seafood and other food products.