China's support for foreign investment encourages multinationals: Siemens CEO

Siemens President and CEO Roland Busch spoke highly of China's commitment to shaping an open market, stating that multinational companies are confident about investing in China.

Busch made the remarks during an interview with China Media Group (CMG) after he attended a meeting of the international business community held by Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing on March 28.

At the meeting, Xi stressed that China will further promote opening-up, ensure fair competition, provide foreign investors with greater conveniences and protect their legitimate rights and interests.

In the interview aired on Friday, Busch detailed the key messages delivered by Xi at this "encouraging" meeting, expressing the German tech giant's determination to actively participate in the Chinese modernization process.

"I feel that this is really a genuine opinion of the president that he wants to really keep a stable policy in order to, of course, create an environment where you dare to invest. So it's also, he talked also about the stabilization of the supply chain and also the deployment of the new quality forces, which is super important and which is all about technology coming into the manufacturing space in particular. So from us, it was encouraging. We are very much in sync with what was said and what we hopefully can contribute to the country," said Busch.

He noted that Xi shared his personal experiences of visiting plants and headquarters of multinational companies while communicating with business representatives during the meeting, which reflected the Chinese leader's close exchanges with the business community and conveyed a "very positive signal" to foreign investors.

"They were very much impressed again about this personal engagement of the president and the whole message which was wrapped around an open market, which is really happy to accept more investments on the one side and also a contribution. I think, he mentioned also, by the way, the Belt and Road Initiative, which is an initiative from China, which is supposed to really contribute to the global economy at the same time," said Busch.

China's support for foreign investment encourages multinationals: Siemens CEO

Demonstrators rallied across U.S. cities over the weekend to denounce the military action in Venezuela that resulted in the capture of President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, who were flown out of the country.

The Venezuelan government said the military strikes targeted civilian and military sites in at least four states, including Caracas, as well as the states of Miranda, Aragua and La Guaira, adding that the U.S. action blatantly violated the UN Charter.

The U.S. military intervention has since drawn widespread criticism, sparking protests at home.

Protesters gathered outside the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn on Sunday, where Maduro is being held, calling the U.S. government actions outrageous and a violation of international law.

Others gathered in the Times Square on Saturday following the capture of the Venezuelan president and his wife, saying the actions are not only illegal but also showed no respect.

"I mean, you don't just step in and take over another country. We have absolutely no right to do that. We have so much trouble in our country right here," said a protester named Sartre.

"It just defies not only human respectability in life but common sense," said another protester.

Additionally, hundreds of protesters gathered outside the White House, holding banners with slogans reading "Hands off Venezuela" and "Stop bombing Venezuela now."

Demonstrators rally in US cities over military action in Venezuela