China has secured big commitments from companies looking to gain access to its market, including a groundbreaking deal with Tesla, as it woos multinationals in the face of US tariffs that threaten to disrupt global supply chains.

The US electric carmaker signed a memorandum of understanding yesterday to build a wholly owned “gigafactory” in Shanghai, a day after German chemicals group BASF reached a deal to build a $10bn petrochemicals plant in the southern Chinese city of Guangdong — among $23bn in deals and MOUs signed during Chinese premier Li Keqiang’s visit to Germany this week.

The agreements come as China sweetens investment terms for multinationals in the midst of a trade stand-off with Washington, which last week imposed 25 per cent import tariffs on $34bn of Chinese goods prompting China to follow suit with retaliatory levies on American imports.