Baidu CEO Robin Li has said that China will welcome immigrants if they are put off by Donald Trump, the president-elect of the United States. He expressed hope that such immigration may help the country to develop its innovative environment.

Trump has vowed to tighten immigration laws in the United States. Many analysts believe that such measures may have an adverse impact on the tech and software industry. US corporations mainly use H-1B visa for recruiting foreign talent. A large number of such immigrants work for tech companies in Silicon Valley.

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Baidu CEO Li said that any such move by Trump could be beneficial for China. "I hope that talent in all countries can come to China, and give us a more important role on the stage of global innovation," he said. Li made the statement while delivering a keynote address at the third annual World Internet Conference.

Asians and Asian-Americans reportedly make up about 27 percent of the professionals working in Silicon Valley.

Li said he hopes that Chinese companies would invite people from different countries and different ethnicities to China. He claims that China is the largest and fastest developing internet market in the world.

Li said that the potential US policies under Trump might be beneficial to China as it may help the country to attract talent from foreign countries. He reiterated that the global center of innovation is now changing. Li quoted one of Trump's advisors saying that three-quarter of the engineers in Silicon Valley are not Americans.

China has the largest Internet-using population in the world. It also has the largest number of smartphone users. Baidu is the biggest internet search engine in the country. The company is currently expanding beyond its core search business.

Baidu is making big strides in the autonomous vehicle segment. The company recently tested its fleet of driverless cars in Wuzhen. Earlier, it tested its self-driving cars in Beijing.