New | Walk the talk: China now needs to act on its pledges to businesses, analysts say

First came the words and now action is needed to back up Chinese President Xi Jinping’s commitment in Seattle last week to bring down barriers for foreign companies doing business in China, observers say.

In a closed-door meeting with 30 business executives at the start of his US tour, Xi said China would cut restrictions to market access but stopped short of giving a much-needed timetable that would go some way to restoring the corporate sector’s confidence, according to a source with knowledge of the talks.

The source said three people from China and three from the United States spoke at the gathering, raising issues from cybersecurity and barriers to market access, to improving regulatory transparency and consistency.

READ MORE: Everything you need to know about Xi Jinping's US visit

Xi “addressed the issues that were exactly what CEOs wanted him to say” but the real challenge was to implement reforms and open up markets, the source said.

Sean Miner, research associate with the Peterson Institute for International Economics, said the business community would closely follow developments in the next few months.

“[This includes moves on] currency, the draft banking law that includes the ‘secure and controllable’ provision in regard to bank software, the implementation of the recently passed laws on cybersecurity and also on national security, which has raised a lot of confusion among the business elite,” Miner said.