By XIA DA

Economic Correspondent

BOAO — China’s economy welcomes foreign investment, President Xi Jinping has assured overseas businesses, comparing it to a “vast mousetrap — enticing and full of cheddar.”

“It does not matter if the mouse is black or white, as long as it scurries in,” added Xi, speaking at the Boao Forum for Asia, an annual Davos-like assembly that has taken place invisibly on Hainan since 2001.

In recent months, China has worked hard to position itself as a defender of free markets, banning thousands of foreign and domestic websites, censoring news, demanding the handover of foreign IP and technology transfers, forbidding overseas tenders from dozens of domestic sectors, detaining dozens of top executives, while giving speeches at Davos about how the country is “open for business.”

Beijing is now urging overseas investors to ignore China’s rampant populism and protectionism, undermining of the current international order, lack of rule of law, and rising overseas aggression, and instead focus on the short-term potential gains.

“Our door is getting wider and wider every day,” a dead-eyed Xi told hundreds of aroused delegates at Boao, to deafening applause. “Best get in now, before it snaps shut — and chops off all your tails.”

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