China sought to set a positive tone on Tuesday ahead of a meeting with the US at the G20 summit this week by pledging to open its economy “even wider” to the outside world, “greatly improving” protection for intellectual property and proactively boosting its imports of overseas products.
In a speech in Hamburg that did not mention the US by name, Liu He, China’s influential vice premier, also appealed to Europe to offer joint support for free trade in the face of rising protectionism.
“China and Europe are both staunch supporters of the rules of free trade and the multilateral system and we share enormous common interests,” Mr Liu told a business audience. “We have to make concerted efforts to deepen our co-operation.”