China on Friday initiated high-level talks attended by visiting officials from France and the European Union (EU) at a forum of Sino-European relations held in Beijing on Friday.
"China will have total imports worth more than five trillion U.S. dollars in the coming few years," Zhang Zhigang, former Ministry of Commerce vice minister, told the European delegates.
"We would like to share such a huge market with foreign regions and countries, including the EU body," he said, adding France and other European countries should take advantage of the service and hi-tech sectors.
Zhang elaborated on various realities of the current Sino-European trade situations in his speech, urging the EU to recognize China's full market economy status to clear the way for trade.
The Chinese public had been irritated by a recent series of incidents involving the Beijing Olympic torch relay in some European countries. In Paris, the female wheelchair fencer Jin Jing was manhandled.
Soon after, a petition was initiated to boycott French products and Carrefour. The supermarket giant had been accused by netizens of supporting the Dalai Lama. The company later denied the claim.
However, an official with Ministry of Commerce warned the boycott would not benefit Chinese since almost 95 percent of the products sold in Carrefour were made locally.
Former French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin said his country would continue its foreign policy with China that dated back to Charles de Gaulle, the country's first president.
Raffarin, who served as prime minister from 2002 to 2005, said China had prominently returned to the world's stage through its reform and opening-up policy and preserved its cultural values.
The 60-year-old conservative senator paid an official visit to China in April 2003 during the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in some areas of the country. At the time, his visit was appreciated by the Chinese government and public who had long regarded France as a friendly Western country.
At the forum, economic issues occupied the main topics in which both sides were not willing to see political disputes disturb business. The EU wants not only Chinese products at lower prices but also capital investment.
Raffarin said France welcomed international investment at a time of globalization that could bring support to the country's development.
Jacques-Henri David, Deutsche Bank country head in France, said if China joined the game of international investment, it would result in mutual benefit.
Many European delegates attending the forum sponsored by the Chinese People's Institute of Foreign Affairs (CPIFA) were jealous of the yuan's appreciation against the U.S. dollar, hoping the currency would have a more flexible exchange rate against the euro.
Yang Wenchang, CPIFA president, told European delegates not to worry about the China Investment Corporation (CIC) that was founded partly to export the U.S. dollar reserve investment to the world.
The institute, packed with retired diplomats still well connected to current political and economic figures in China, could be a good conduit for European partners to meet high-ranking CIC officials, he said.
Source: Xinhua
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