China's second-largest leader, Li Qiang, traveled to Switzerland with a message to the business world giants gathered for the World Economic Forum.
“Choosing the Chinese market is not a risk but an opportunity,” Mr. Li, China's prime minister, told an audience in Davos on Tuesday.
But there is a different sentiment about China's stock market performance, and it is not so optimistic. Concerns about China's economy have been visible for months in Hong Kong, where stocks fell 14 percent last year, their fourth consecutive annual decline.
The new year also brought no relief and economic data released by China on Wednesday triggered another sell-off.
In Hong Kong, where many of China's largest companies are traded, shares fell 3.7 percent on Wednesday. So far this year the market has lost a tenth of its value. In China's financial capital Shanghai, stocks fell 2.1 percent, bringing this year's decline to nearly 5 percent.
Although China says its economy grew 5.2 percent in 2023, high growth by most standards, it is undergoing significant change. China's leaders are trying to wean the country away from real estate and construction, long pillars of growth, while reducing its reliance on borrowed money.
The expected consumption boom after China reversed its “zero Covid” policy at the end of 2022 also did not take place.
A shrinking population and an aging workforce are adding to the headwinds. China also announced Wednesday that its population has shrunk by two million people and is aging rapidly, putting further strain on its already weak health system and underfunded state pensions.
While China's economy has shown modest improvement recently, “the recovery clearly remains shaky,” economists at Capital Economics wrote in a report.
Real estate and consumer goods companies were hit hardest by the selloff in Hong Kong, which has for years been a gateway for foreign investors looking to put money in mainland China. Longfor Group, a Chinese real estate developer, fell 6.8 percent, while Meituan, the Chinese delivery service, fell 7 percent.
Stock prices in the United States have remained flat so far this year, while stock prices in Japan are surging, up over 6 percent.
Many investors have been hoping that China can boost its economy with major stimulus, as it has done in the past during times of economic crisis, but policymakers said this time would be different.
Mr. Qiang reiterated this restraint in his address to the World Economic Forum. “We have avoided big incentives,” he said, “and have not pursued short-term growth at the price of accumulating long-term risks.”