Every March, top corporate and financial executives fly to Beijing for the Chinese Communist party’s premier networking event. The China Development Forum, typically held a week after China’s rubber-stamp parliament has wrapped up its annual meeting, attracts dozens of Fortune 500 executives and international financiers.
When not mixing with vice-premiers and ministers at the forum’s main venue, the exclusive Diaoyutai State Guesthouse, the foreign VIPs fan across the capital for private meetings with their best party and government contacts.
It is normally a relaxed affair. At last year’s session, Chinese officials could point to a strong economic outlook and even stable relations with the US as President Xi Jinping prepared for his first face-to-face meeting with Donald Trump.