Li Keqiang Reaffirms China’s Commitment to Global Trade

Premier Li Keqiang on Tuesday reiterated China’s stance against protectionism, while expressing his confidence that the Chinese economy will retain its positive momentum and achieve this year’s 6.5% growth target.

Echoing President Xi Jinping’s winter Davos speech earlier this year on China’s embrace of economic globalization and free trade, Li criticized “emerging counter-globalization voices.”

“Globalization provides opportunities for all people and countries, but there will be problems if one is not prepared well or has not adapted enough,” Li said at the opening of the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting of the New Champions in the northeastern city of Dalian.

“We can’t stop walking and blame the ground for not being flat just because we sprang our ankle on our way,” Li told the forum.

The three-day forum, attended by about 2,000 representatives from more than 80 countries and regions, has focused on inclusive growth in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

On foreign businesses, Li encouraged foreign companies to reinvest their profits in China, as “the country has a lot of business potential.” But he added that foreign companies are free to move their profits wherever way they want.

“As China continues opening itself to foreign businesses, several Chinese cities are experimenting with fast-track registration for foreign companies,” Li said. “The experiment’s goal is to consolidate the functions of several departments into a single process, and set a maximum time for each application.”

China’s repeated comments on protectionism are considered a response to the rising anti-globalization sentiment in the U.S. after Donald Trump won the presidential election late last year. However, the two countries’ trade relations warmed after Xi met with Trump in April in Florida and decided to further discuss trade issues in a follow-up 100-day plan.

China agreed to start importing U.S. beef in July after banning it for more than a decade.

Li said on Tuesday that countries should negotiate to solve trade disputes in a way that balances the interests of all parties, and not exert one country’s rule over another.

Meanwhile, Li said current data shows China’s economy has continued its positive momentum in the second quarter, after 6.9% of growth in the first quarter. The country in March set its 2017 growth target about 6.5%, the lowest rate in more than two decades.

Over the first five months of this year, the traditional figures of power generation, freight volumes and new orders experienced remarkable growth, Li said. In May, the unemployment rate in China fell to 4.91% — the lowest in years.

Growth in China has been under pressure as it continues to undergo economic restructuring, cut overcapacity and attempts to rein in the once overheated property market.

However, Li said the pressure won’t stop the county from meeting its goals. “Based on the situation in the first half of this year, we can absolutely fulfill our major targets in economic and social development of this year,” he said.

Contact reporter Wu Gang (gangwu@caixin.com)