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By Michael Martina and Eric M. Johnson SEATTLE (Reuters) – Chinese President Xi Jinping sought to reassure U.S. officials on Tuesday that Beijing remains committed to financial reforms and an open economy. “China will not go backward in this process,” Xi said at a forum for U.S. and Chinese governors in Seattle during the first day of his week-long visit to the United States. Xi's visit will include meetings with tech and other top business leaders, a black-tie state dinner at the White House hosted by President Barack Obama and an address at the United Nations.

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China's Alibaba Group Holding Ltd said on Wednesday it would invest $1 billion into its Aliyun cloud computing arm to challenge Amazon.com Inc's lucrative Web Services division, opening a global front in the battle between the two e-commerce giants. With the global cloud computing market estimated by analysts to be worth about $20 billion, Alibaba said in a statement the investment would go toward setting up new Aliyun data centers in the Middle East, Singapore, Japan and Europe. Although Alibaba and Amazon have so far avoided competing directly in their core business of e-commerce outside China, Aliyun's international expansion takes aim squarely at Amazon Web Services (AWS), an increasingly central and profitable division of the Seattle-based company.

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By Mary Milliken LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – When Amazon Inc announced on Monday its move into the movie business, the Internet retailer sent a ripple through Hollywood's pool of independent film. With plans to produce 12 films per year with budgets ranging from $5 million to $25 million, for theatrical release and streaming on Amazon Prime video 4-8 weeks later, a digital company is creating a new art-house studio and getting films into consumers' hands and living rooms faster. “It's a great business,” said Mark Gordon, the veteran Hollywood television and film producer behind movies like “Saving Private Ryan” and the new Steve Jobs biopic. “By financing a movie they feel good about and knowing where their second window is going to be, there is a huge opportunity for them and the rest of the creative community.” Amazon's announcement came as a surprise, but the Seattle-based company had already built up its credibility among Hollywood's creative types, most notably with its television series “Transparent,” which won two Golden Globes last week, its first major awards since starting Amazon Studios in 2010.