Bloomberg News: 

I have a question about U.S-China ties. The relationship right now is in a relatively tense situation. I want to ask how this would affect Chinese policy and China's relationship with the rest of the world. For example, could China speed up or slow down the pace at which it opens access to its markets for foreign investors? Thank you.

Xu Lin:

Mr. Han Wenxiu will answer your question.

Han Wenxiu:

Thank you. Opening-up is one of the important features and basic attributes of the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics. General Secretary Xi Jinping has made it clear that the more China develops itself, the more open it will be. Over more than 40 years of reform and opening-up, China has become the world's second largest economy. The country's per capita GDP is estimated to surpass $10,000 this year, and we will complete the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects by 2020. Now we are embarking on a journey to fully build a modern socialist China, which creates new demands for the reform and opening-up in the future. The session put forward the goal of building new institutions of the open economy at a higher level and carrying out all-round opening-up in more fields, with broader range and greater depth.  

Opening-up in a broader range means optimizing the overall layout of China's opening-up, consolidating the position of eastern coastal areas as the leader of opening-up, achieving better opening-up in the inland areas, speeding up the construction of free trade zones and free ports as a major focus, and building a new pattern of all-round opening-up in every part of the country. We need to vigorously promote the high-quality development of the Belt and Road and expand foreign trade in a diversified way.

Opening-up in more fields means significantly relaxing restrictions on market access. We need to open up more manufacturing, service and agricultural sectors, speed up the opening-up in the fields of finance, telecommunications, education, medical care, and culture, and allow companies with majority foreign ownership or wholly foreign-funded enterprises to operate in more sectors. That will provide more market opportunities and bigger development space for investors of various countries. 

Opening-up with greater depth means promoting trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, improving the management system of pre-establishment national treatment plus a negative list, and pushing forward opening-up based on rules, regulations, management systems, standards and related institutions. China will earnestly implement the Foreign Investment Law to better protect the lawful rights and interests of foreign companies and foster a level playing field for Chinese and foreign enterprises alike. The country will strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights and business secrets, and create a world-class business environment established on market principles and the rule of law.

All in all, opening-up is a basic policy of China. Despite the changes in the international situation, China is going to continue to open its doors wider, and its business environment will become better. As the country is more closely tied with the world economy, we will continuously seek mutual benefit together with other countries in a wider scope and at a deeper level.

Xu Lin:

Today's press conference is hereby concluded. Thank you to all the speakers, and friends from the media. 

Translated and edited by Chen Xia, Zhang Lulu, He Shan, Yuan Fang, Zhou Jing, Zhang Junmian, Zhang Liying, Li Huiru, Fan Junmei, Liu Qiang, Wang Wei, Zhu Bochen, Zhang Junmian, Mi Xingang, Zhang Jiaqi, Geoffrey Murray. In case of any dispute over a discrepancy, the Chinese version is deemed to prevail.