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Invest Shanghai
A growing number of US businesses have moved or pledged to further expand their businesses in the Chinese market through various activities, including new expansion projects and meetings with Chinese officials. This trend underscored US companies' solid commitment to the Chinese market despite trade tensions, a Chinese expert said on Wednesday.
In a meeting with Yin Li, Party chief of Beijing, on Tuesday, Timothy Geithner, former US Treasury secretary and chairman of Warburg Pincus, lauded the Chinese capital as a "hotbed for global investors" and pledged to expand cross-sectoral cooperation.
Specifically, Warburg Pincus aims to deepen cooperation with Beijing in finance, science and innovation, healthcare and urban renewal to seize growth opportunities, Geithner said, according to a statement posted on the website of the Beijing municipal government on Wednesday.
Also on Tuesday, US retail giant Walmart broke ground on what will become its largest Sam's Club in North China, a 25,000-square-meter membership store in North China's Tianjin, which is scheduled to open in 2026, demonstrating Walmart's unwavering commitment to the Chinese market, according to the Xinhua News Agency.
"We are extremely proud of Sam's growth in China," Zhu Xiaojing, president and CEO of Walmart China, was quoted by Xinhua as saying. Zhu revealed at the 2025 Walmart investor meeting that the number of Sam's Club stores in China with annual sales exceeding $500 million is expected to increase to eight this year.
Meanwhile, McDonald's China has launched a nationwide recruitment week, with approximately 15,000 job positions available in Shanghai, according to a report on local news outlet paper.cn on Wednesday.
Adding to the momentum, in response to an inquiry from the Global Times about media reports that Nvidia is seeking to build a research and development center in Shanghai, the US chip giant said in an email on Tuesday that "we are leasing a new space for existing employees and this is a continuation of our longstanding presence there."
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said that China's artificial intelligence market will likely reach about $50 billion in the next two to three years, and that missing out on it would be a "tremendous loss," CNBC reported on May 6.
Li Yong, a senior research fellow at the China Association of International Trade, said that as main players in the market economy, US enterprises prioritize maximizing profits through global resource allocation and seek higher efficiency and optimized industrial, value and supply chains and "China perfectly fits the criteria for an ideal market."
US companies, driven by economic rationality rather than geopolitical considerations, are drawn to China's resilient economic fundamentals, proactive policy support and stable market environment. China's robust economic growth, combined with continuous efforts to optimize the business ecosystem, including creating a fair, transparent and rules-based market, provide crucial incentives for US investment, Li told the Global Times on Wednesday.
In contrast to protectionism in certain countries, China has taken a series of measures to stabilize foreign trade and investment, including expanding market access for foreign businesses. Among the measures, China's State Council in April approved a plan that aims to expand comprehensive pilot programs to accelerate the services industry's opening-up, which includes 155 pilot tasks across key areas such as the opening of key services sectors and the promotion of industrial innovation and development.
These US companies' recent proactive moves in China vividly demonstrate their strong confidence in and solid commitment to the Chinese market, Wang Peng, an associate research fellow at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Monday.
"China's vast market, upgraded consumption demand and expanding middle-income group offer huge potential. For long-term development, they can also leverage China's stable economy, consistent policies and optimized business environment to achieve strategic goals," Wang said.