BEIJING (Reuters) – Chinese Premier Li Qiang told Samsung Chairman Jay Lee Lee on Sunday that China welcomes further investment by the Korean conglomerate, state news agency Xinhua reported, as foreign businesses in the Chinese market struggle to cope with geopolitical uncertainty.
The meeting in Seoul between China’s second-highest official and the Korean leader came ahead of a summit between Lee, South Korean President Yoon Seok-yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, the first trilateral talks between the Asian neighbors in more than four years.
Samsung Electronics (KS:) has invested $24 billion in the Chinese market over the past six years, a company executive said in a November report by state newspaper China Daily.
But the Korean tech giant faces growing challenges to its business amid tensions between the US and China as it tries to control exports, which Washington has moved to cut off China’s access to advanced chips.
Lee’s decision to meet with the Samsung executive echoes previous remarks the Chinese leader made during a bilateral meeting with Yoon, where he encouraged more Korean enterprises to invest and do business in China and urged Beijing and Seoul to cooperate in maintaining the stability of industrial supply chains. .