On June 11, 2020, Hill Times published a signed article by Chinese Ambassador Cong Peiwu titled "What We Talk About When We Talk About Doing Business with China". Here is the full text:

Tim Hortons, a fast-food chain brand beloved by Canadians, announced last month it has received financing from Tencent Holdings Ltd, the Chinese Internet services giant. Across the Pacific Ocean, the two well-known companies from China and Canada have joined forces. It is reported that Tim Hortons will speed up store opening after the financing, and is expected to open more than 1,500 stores in China soon. There is no doubt that both companies hold positive expectations for the future with such a vast consumer market in China.

Though the global economy has been facing substantial downward pressure for the recent years, by 2019, about 490 of the world's top 500 companies have invested in China. The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has hit the global economy and China's economy hard. However, like Tim Hortons, many foreign enterprises are still enthusiastic about having commercial cooperation with China and choosing to expand their business in the country.

Lately, heads of several multinational companies, including Tim Cook, chief executive officer (CEO) of Apple, Steve Mollenkopf, CEO of Qualcomm, and Ozawa Hideki, Chairman and CEO of Canon (China), expressed their confidence in China's long-term economic development and their readiness to keep close contact with their Chinese partners and continue to expand business cooperation.

Meanwhile, the Canada-China Business Impact Survey 2019/2020 recently released by the Canada-China Business Council also shows the overall optimistic attitude of the Canadian business circle towards the prospects of China-related business. According to the survey, more than 60% of Canadian companies will further raise or maintain China's presence in their future global plan.

So what exactly is China's appeal?

In the survey, it is found that sound economic fundamentals, complete industrial system, increasingly optimized business environment, self-contained infrastructure conditions and super large market are "high-frequency words" that are mostly mentioned. In the eyes of foreign business partners, these are precisely the strength and attractiveness of China. Since the beginning of this year, the long-term positive fundamentals of China's market and economy have been strongly confirmed in the battle against the pandemic. More and more multinationals are feeling the resilience and charm of China's economy.

China boasts a huge consumer market. In 2019, China's GDP increased by 6.1% to about 14.4 trillion US dollars, with per capita GDP exceeding 10,000 US dollars, and the final contribution rate of consumption expenditure to economic growth reached nearly 60%. The thriving consumer market not only consolidates confidence in China's economic growth, but also provides huge cooperation space for foreign companies. China will make good preparation for the third China International Import Expo this year, which is a large globally-oriented market of higher standards.

China has advantages from a complete industrial system. China, as the only country in the world with all industrial categories in the United Nations industrial classification catalogue, has a complete industrial system and full complementary capacity from upstream and downstream industries. Currently, these advantages are unmatched by any other country in the world.

China has an increasingly optimized business environment. China has long pressed the "fast forward button" to optimize its business environment. In 2019, China was rated one of the 10 economies that improved the most on the ease of doing business for the second year in a row by the World Bank. In the 2020 Report on the Work of the Government, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang made a promise that China would make sustained efforts to create a market-oriented, law-based, and internationalized business environment, and promote high-standard opening up. China is making greater efforts to further shorten the negative list of foreign investment access, and grant greater autonomy in reform and opening up to pilot free trade zones. For example, in the financial sector, China formally removed the restrictions on the ratio of foreign shareholding in securities and fund management firms this April.

China has broad prospects for cooperation. The CCBC survey shows that China's economic development has a positive impact on Canadian companies' success, and successful companies are often active in industries of more attention in China's development planning and policies. In the next stage, China will put more focus on upgrading of manufacturing and the growth of emerging industries. Priority will be given to new infrastructure and new initiatives and major projects. It will provide new cooperation opportunities for more Canadian enterprises for sure.

As the post-epidemic era comes, all countries are confronted with the urgent task of recovering their economies. What measures should be taken to hedge the downside risks of the economy, what partners should be selected for common development, how to solve the problems of employment and sales, where the goods can be sold, and where to build new production lines…… The whole world is reflecting on these questions. But, there is no doubt that while we are thinking, China will be a factor and an option that cannot and should not be avoided.

Back to the question of the title of this article: what do we talk about when we talk about doing business with China? The answer is mutual benefits and win-win results for all participants and a bright future of which each party is convinced.