China-EU comprehensive cooperation conducive to global growth, peace and stability: ambassador

MORE DIFFICULT TO GO FROM EXTRAVAGANCE TO FRUGALITY

Responding to Handelsblatt’s question about governmental subsidy in China, Zhang said that "I think this is just your assumption. The pockets of the Chinese government are not as deep as you believe. And the vast majority of Chinese companies in international markets are private companies."

European companies are very active in the Chinese market. By the end of April the EU’s stock investments in China amounted to $120 billion, accounting for 4 percent of the EU’s total stock investment overseas. And China’s stock investments in the EU amounted to a little over $80 billion, only 2 percent of the total FDI flows into the EU, said Zhang.

As for Handelsblatt’s question about the opening of the Chinese market, Zhang reaffirmed China’s commitment to further open up its markets.

"Last October and again April this year China made announcements to further open up its markets. (In June) the Chinese government announced even more measures, including the new negative lists for foreign investment, to cut restrictions on market access. These measures include further opening of 22 sectors. The manufacturing sector is now basically opened up. And the level of opening-up in the service sector has fairly increased," said the ambassador.

"China is delivering on its promise. I have seen positive comments in European and American media on this and also by the European Chamber of Commerce in China. The business climate in China is not bad. According to a survey conducted by the World Bank, the ranking of China in terms of ease of doing business has gone up by 18 places, and the ranking in terms of setting up a business has gone up by 65 places," he said.

According to the latest business confidence survey issued by the European Chamber of Commerce, more than 60 percent of European companies are optimistic about their future in China. Of course nobody is perfect and so is China and we will continue to improve the business environment.

"There is another fact that about 20 to 30 years ago, the decades that I personally lived through, foreign investors were granted supra-national treatments. After China’s accession to WTO in 2001, these supra-national treatments have been gradually replaced by national treatments."

"As we Chinese often say, it is more difficult to go from extravagance to frugality than the other way round. It is natural for companies to have some complaints, but we will continue our efforts to improve business environment as I said," he noted.