Chinese president Xi Jinping offered no major new concessions in his first high-profile public appearance since China and the US last week threatened to impose punitive tariffs on $100bn worth of bilateral trade flows.
In a speech at the Bo’ao Forum for Asia, an annual event hosted by the Chinese government on Hainan island, Mr Xi outlined a “four-point plan” to liberalise the country’s foreign-investment climate and trading regime.
Most of the measures he mentioned had been previously announced and the Chinese president offered no new details about when or how they would be implemented, increasing the chances that the world’s two largest economies could be embroiled in a trade war as soon as June.