Apple's CEO Tim Cook appears at Taikoo Li in Chengdu, Southwest China's Sichuan Province, on March 18, 2026. Photo: VCG

Apple CEO Tim Cook is visiting China ahead of the China Development Forum 2026 (CDF), which will be held on March 22 and March 23. Moves by a number of foreign companies after the nation's annual two sessions have demonstrated their growing emphasis on the Chinese market amid global uncertainties, an analyst said.

Cook visited an Apple retail store in downtown Chengdu, Southwest China's Sichuan Province on Wednesday afternoon, the Sichuan Daily reported. Video footage released by the local newspaper showed Cook waving a V sign to a crowd.

In addition to Cook's visit in Chengdu, Apple COO Sabih Khan was also visiting China, with a stop in South China's tech hub Shenzhen, where he toured a local Apple research laboratory and the company's original equipment manufacturers including Foxconn, the National Business Daily reported on Wednesday.

The visit by Cook to China ahead of the CDF - an event in which he has frequently participated in the past - came amid moves by foreign companies to set up more local facilities and projects in China.

A number of localities as well as government agencies have in recent days taken fresh moves to attract foreign investment, which an analyst said will help boost the full-year foreign direct investment (FDI) figure amid global uncertainties that has highlighted China's status as a safe haven for investment.

On Wednesday, the 42nd certification ceremony for the regional headquarters and research and development (R&D) centers of multinational corporations was held in Shanghai. A total of 30 regional headquarters of multinational corporations and 15 foreign-invested R&D centers were awarded certificates by the Shanghai municipal authorities, domestic news portal yicai.com reported.

Most of the regional headquarters of multinational corporations and foreign-invested R&D centers that received certificates this time were from key industries in Shanghai's development priorities, such as biomedicine, integrated circuits, high-end equipment, automobiles, and fashion consumer goods, according to the report.

On March 13, global consumer company Haleon said that it is investing 65 million pounds ($86.87 million) in a new oral health manufacturing site in Shanghai to support growth in what the company said is the "world's largest gum health market."

These developments came on the heels of an announcement by the country's top economic planning agency on key foreign-invested projects.

The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) has announced 13 major foreign-invested projects for 2026, with planned investment totaling $13.4 billion, state broadcaster CCTV News reported on Tuesday. This marks the ninth time that the NDRC has updated its list of major foreign-invested projects. 

The newly selected projects are concentrated in manufacturing, covering sectors including electronics, chemicals, automobiles and machinery. Multinational companies from the UK, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden and Turkey are among those involved.

An analyst said that as China is taking the services sector as a key area to expand market access and opening-up and encouraging services exports, multinational companies can not only take part in "Made in China" but also deeply engage in the services sector, and achieve an integration of manufacturing and services. 

These measures rolled out by Chinese government agencies and localities have shown that China is placing great emphasis on attracting foreign investment, including leveraging foreign capital to boost the domestic consumer industry, Hu Qimu, a deputy secretary-general of the Forum 50 for Digital-Real Economies Integration, told the Global Times on Wednesday. 

Amid global supply chain fragmentation, China is proactively pushing forward with further integration with the world, striving to attract high-quality foreign investment, Hu said, adding that "Amid global uncertainties, the Chinese market's inherent value as a safe haven for foreign investment stands out further."