China and the United States are currently engaged in a bitter trade war that has seen billions of tariffs levied against various goods. Despite this backdrop, China and multinational oil corporation ExxonMobil have recently discussed the possibility of investment worth at least $10 billion.
Representatives of the Chinese government and several ExxonMobil executives have discussed the investment possibility of the latter. The talks were helped in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong.
Based on reports from the Chinese state media, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and ExxonMobil Chief Executive Officer Darren Woods were engaged during the meeting. The report quoted Premier Li said that he is open to ExxonMobil's substantial investment in China.
Following the talks between the two parties, ExxonMobil released a statement on Thursday confirming that it signed a preliminary deal with China. The deal involves the construction of a petrochemical complex in China. The deal also includes investments with regards liquefied natural gas terminal.
Initial reports estimated that the investment will amount to at least $10 billion. However, both the Chinese government and ExxonMobil denied confirming the exact figure.
ExxonMobil is just the latest multinational company to be lured by China to establish massive investments in the country. Recently, top Chinese authorities were reportedly involved in investment negotiations with package delivery company UPS and tech giant Tesla.
Chinese Vice-President Wang Qishan met with Tesla Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk in July. In June, Chinese President Xi Jinping told top executives of Cargill, Goldman Sachs, UPS, Prologis, and Pfizer, that the Chinese market will continue to open its doors to foreign investors.
China is able to entice this huge multinational corporation to invest in the country despite the ongoing trade war against the United States. Some observers noted that the trade war will have a positive impact on China as more and more corporation and inclining to invest into the country rather than the West.
Market analysts are fearful about the massive repercussion of the trade war between China and the U.S. President Donald Trump continues to bully Chinese imports with massive tariffs. On Friday, President Trump green-lighted the new set of tariffs worth $200 billion.
Following the imposition of this new set of tariffs from the United States, the Chinese government stated that it will also renew its decision to impose its own set of retaliatory tariffs against American goods.
