China backs EU recovery,seeks concessions

China will address European concerns over investment rules and copyright violations.

China will address European concerns over investment rules and copyright violations,but wants the EU to relax remaining trade barriers with Beijing in return,Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said on Sunday.

Wen is visiting Greece ahead of an EU-China summit in Brussels this week,and said his country was committed to assisting Europe’s post-recession recovery by backing a stable euro and not reducing his country’s holdings of bonds from EU countries,despite Europe’s sovereign debt crisis.

Speaking at Greece’s parliament Sunday,Wen urged the EU to recognise China’s “full market economy status” and relax remaining restrictions on high-tech exports. “I have repeatedly expressed China’s support for a stable euro and said that we will not reduce the amount of European bonds that we hold,” Wen said.

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“We have stood by the European Union’s efforts to overcome its difficulties and achieve recovery.”

He sought to ease European concern that overseas companies operating in China face licensing-rule restraints that give local competitors and unfair advantage.

“China is willing to continue to bolster its strategic partnership with the EU… to improve the investment environment and strengthen the protection of intellectual property.”

The 27-nation European Union is China’s largest trading partner,and in 2009 imported euro215 billion ($295 billion) worth of Chinese goods,according to EU data.

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