Chinese President Xi Jinping’s upcoming meeting with executives from BMW, Mercedes, and Qualcomm is not merely a diplomatic formality—it is an act of economic triage. As foreign direct investment in China plunges by 27.1% year-on-year—the sharpest drop since the 2008 financial crisis—Beijing scrambles to reassure multinational corporations that its economy remains a safe harbor amid global turbulence.

China’s once-unquestioned dominance as the world’s manufacturing hub is eroding as corporations, wary of geopolitical tensions and punitive U.S. tariffs, shift production elsewhere.

German automakers, long reliant on the Chinese market, now find themselves caught in a brutal squeeze between Tesla’s global expansion and the rise of homegrown electric titans like BYD and Xiaomi.

The ritualistic pageantry of high-level meetings between foreign executives and Chinese leadership belies a deeper crisis. The global economic order is fraying.

The illusion of stability—sustained through carefully orchestrated forums and promises of “active macroeconomic policies”—cannot mask the underlying reality: capital is fleeing, supply chains are realigning, and China’s economic hegemony is facing its most serious challenge in decades.