Xi, who previously warned against economic bubbles stemming from pouring an excess of resources into certain fields, said support for the “new three” commodities – electric vehicles, lithium-ion batteries and solar panels – must be “adapted” to local conditions.
“If a company collapses within a few years of its establishment, then our development of modern industries and cultivation of new productive forces will not be sustainable. The enterprise itself must develop internal strength,” the president was quoted as saying in a detailed account of the meeting from state news outlet Xinhua published on Saturday.
Xi made the comments when responding to Zhang Bin, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, who discussed fierce domestic competition and declining prices.
Enthusiasm for the “new three” – the aforementioned products which show promise as essential goods undergirding the global green transition – has led local governments to spend heavily in support of their own champions, with companies mostly focusing on the lower end of value chains rather than pushing technological frontiers.
Chinese authorities have expressed their own concerns about excess capacity, but they have also refuted claims from the US and Europe that the country is purposefully flooding global markets with cheap goods to crowd out competitors, especially in new energy.
To drive his point home, Xi reminisced at the meeting on his tenure as governor of Fujian province and party secretary of Zhejiang province, the Xinhua report said. It was there he bore witness to the transformation of numerous private garment companies, turning from simple warehouses to brands in their own right that now outperform their international competitors.
“I observed these companies – they were focused, consistent, and they strengthened their core business,” he said.
Earlier in his trip on Wednesday, Xi praised the state-owned Shandong Port Group for successfully automating its ports and container terminals through “independent innovation” that has reduced reliance on foreign technology, the Xinhua report said.
But Xi also assured multinational executives at the meeting that the country is committed to creating a “level playing field” and will not squeeze foreign-funded companies out of the Chinese market “just because they are foreign companies”.