Li Chenggang, China's international trade negotiator and vice minister of commerce (MOFCOM), meets with Sabih Khan, chief operating officer of US tech giant Apple on December 19, 2025. Photo: Courtesy of MOFCOM's website

Li Chenggang, China international trade representative with the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) and vice minister of commerce, met with Sabih Khan, chief operating officer of US tech giant Apple on Friday. The two sides exchanged views on Apple's business development in China and other issues, according to a Monday release on the MOFCOM's website.

The cooperation between Apple and the Chinese market has been a process of mutual empowerment and shared growth, Li said. During the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30) period, China will further expand high-level opening-up, and create broader opportunities for foreign-invested companies including Apple. He expressed the hope that Apple will deepen integration with its Chinese partners, stay committed to the China market and pursue common development.

Sabih Khan said that Apple places a high value on the capability and potential of China's supply chain, and that cooperation with Chinese partners has long been a relationship of mutual benefit and shared growth, according to the release.  

Apple will remain committed to its long-term development in China, continue to increase investment in areas including the local supply chain, research and development, and social responsibility and adhere to a development path characterized by intelligence-driven innovation, green practices and deeper integration, in order to achieve mutually beneficial and win-win outcomes, Khan said, according to the release. 

Bian Yongzu, a senior researcher at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, told the Global Times on Monday that Li Chenggang's meeting with Apple's chief operating officer underscores China's long-standing commitment to opening up its market and welcoming foreign companies to continue investing and operating in the country. He noted that the interaction is consistent with China's enduring policy stance in support of economic openness and globalization.

Bian pointed out that economic globalization remains an irreversible trend, as countries benefit from open cooperation by leveraging their respective strengths. Such cooperation not only drives economic growth, but also enhances mutual understanding and people-to-people exchanges, with economic and trade ties increasingly serving as a cornerstone of bilateral relations.

He further said that amid current pressures in China-US economic and trade relations, China's engagement with US businesses helps stabilize bilateral ties through pragmatic economic cooperation. Given the strong complementarity between the two economies, deeper cooperation would not only serve the interests of both countries, but also contribute to broader global economic stability.

The expert said that China has in recent years continued to step up efforts to attract and support foreign investment.

China's actual use of foreign capital increased by 26.1 percent year-on-year in November, MOFCOM statistics showed. The number of newly established foreign-invested enterprises continued to grow at a relatively fast pace. In the first 11 months of the year, 61,207 foreign-invested enterprises were newly set up nationwide, up 16.9 percent year-on-year, while 7,425 were established in November alone, a 35.3 percent increase.

The data also show that sources of foreign investment became more diversified, with actual investment from Switzerland rising 67 percent year-on-year, investment from the United Arab Emirates increasing 47.6 percent, and investment from the United Kingdom up 19.3 percent, including investment made via free ports.