Chinese President Xi Jinping has sought to reassure US business leaders, in a wide-ranging speech covering China's economic reforms and cyber crime.
Speaking in Seattle, Mr Xi said foreign firms were welcome in China, and that Beijing would not manipulate its currency to boost exports.
He also denied Beijing engages in hacking but said China would co-operate with Washington on the issue.
Both issues have strained US-China relations in recent years.
The BBC's West Coast correspondent James Cook says hacking and economic reforms are likely to come up when Mr Xi meets his US counterpart Barack Obama on Friday.
Mr Xi, who is on his first state visit to the US, told a dinner meeting of business leaders that ensuring robust international trade was a top priority.
"China will never close its open door to the outside world," Mr Xi said in Chinese.
Xi Jinping's speech at a banquet in Seattle was wide-ranging, friendly and colourful, sprinkled with Chinese proverbs and references to American culture.
From Sleepless in Seattle to Walt Whitman, Mr Xi lavished praise on the culture of his hosts.
He was particularly taken, he said, with Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea which follows a fisherman's epic struggle to land a huge marlin.
The president talked about China's struggles too, giving a personal account of his tough teenage years working with peasants in a poor village, with no meat to eat for months on end.
Now the village had an internet connection, as well as plentiful meat, he said.
It was a subtle rebuke to rich Westerners who criticise China's rise, reminding them where his country is rising from.
Pointedly for an American audience, he referred to the Chinese Dream which was linked, he said, to his people's yearning for a better life.
In response to US allegations that China-linked hackers have been behind a massive data security breach of government databases as well as attacks on private firms, Mr Xi said Beijing was not involved.
He also said cyber-theft was a crime and should be punished.
"The Chinese government will not in whatever form engage in commercial thefts or encourage or support such attempts by anyone," Mr Xi said.
Ahead of his visit, business leaders re-iterated the difficulties US firms have operating in China and the deteriorating outlook for the economy.
China's economy, which has grown rapidly in recent years, is beginning to slow, causing global concern about a fall in demand for global goods.
Recent dramatic losses on the Chinese stock markets, despite government interventions, have led to questions over how well the government is managing the slowdown.
Mr Xi will be hosted at the White House for a state dinner on 25 September, and is due to give a speech to the UN General Assembly in New York on 28 September.
