China made a late push to curry international favour on Tuesday by saying the country aims at opening its economy “even wider” to the outside world, the Financial Times reports.
Speaking in Hamburg, Liu also promised that the government was working at “greatly improving” intellectual property protection for foreign companies in China.
He then called on Europe to join China in its opposition to protectionist policies. “China and Europe are both staunch supporters of the rules of free trade and the multilateral system and we share enormous common interests,” Liu told business leaders. “We have to make concerted efforts to deepen our co-operation.”
On the topic of opening up, Liu made reference to China’s telecommunications, education and medical service industries, claiming that “the development of the Chinese economy in the future can only be guaranteed on the basis of even greater openness.”
He also acknowledged that intellectual property rights were a key grievance of many Western companies, and that China was pursuing stricter patent laws and harsher punishments to reduce IP theft.
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