Chinese President Xi Jinping meets with global executives as Beijing focuses on business outreach

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday met with global executives as Beijing focuses on reaching out to businesses amid escalating trade tensions with the U.S.

Xi emphasized on how the country is a safe and stable place for foreign business. "To invest in China is to invest in tomorrow," Xi said in Mandarin translated by CNBC. 

U.S. President Donald Trump has raised tariffs by 20% on China since January over its alleged role in the U.S. fentanyl crisis, and threatened a swath of new tariffs on major trading partners starting early April. Trump this week said he might reduce China tariffs to help close a deal that forces Beijing-based ByteDance to sell TikTok's U.S. operations.

The U.S. this week also added dozens of Chinese tech companies to its export blacklist, the first such restrictions under the Trump administration.

China has increased its trade with Southeast Asian countries and the European Union, but the U.S. remains Beijing's largest trading partner on a single-country basis.

In a sign of how Beijing seeks to offset trade pressures, rather than retaliate forcefully, China courted the executives of major U.S. businesses at a state-backed annual conference that ran from Sunday to Monday. Apple CEO Tim Cook was among the executives who attended, while Tesla CEO Elon Musk was conspicuous by his absence.

Also on Sunday, U.S. Republican Senator Steve Daines met Chinese Premier Li Qiang in Beijing — the first time a U.S. politician has visited China since Trump began his latest term in January.

"This was the first step to an important next step, which will be a meeting between President Xi and President Trump," Daines told the Wall Street Journal. "When that occurs and where it occurs is to be determined."

The White House did not respond to CNBC's request for comment.

Li urged cooperation and said no one can gain from a trade war, according to state media.

Top executives of major firms including FedEx, Pfizer, Cargill, Qualcomm and Boeing as well as U.S. China Business Council President Sean Stein were also present at Daines' meeting with Li, according to a foreign media pool report.