Ladies and Gentlemen,

The agreement reached between President Hu and President Obama in 2011 on building a China-U.S. cooperative partnership based on mutual respect and mutual benefit fully captures the features and requirements of China-U.S. relations under the new circumstances. We now stand at a new historical starting point. To promote sustained, sound and steady growth of mutually beneficial business ties is the shared responsibility of our two governments, and it represents the wish of the business communities in both countries. In this connection, I propose we take steps in the following four areas:

First, we need to seize market opportunities and promote balanced trade growth. In the 12th Five-Year Plan period from 2011 to 2015, the Chinese Government will speed up the shift of economic growth model, accelerate economic restructuring and implement the strategy of expanding domestic demand. We will encourage more consumption, import, outward investment and innovation. The U.S. Government is implementing the National Export Initiative and vigorously attracting overseas investment. These mutually complementary macroeconomic policy goals offer new important opportunities for China and the United States to deepen economic cooperation and trade. The year 2012 is a crucial year for the implementation of the 12th Five-Year Plan. China's economy will make progress while maintaining stability and continue to achieve steady and robust growth. There will not be a "hard landing". By 2015, China's total retail sales of consumer goods are expected to reach 32 trillion yuan or about $5 trillion, its domestic market will become one of the largest in the world, its total imports are expected to surpass $8 trillion, and its outbound investment will exceed $500 billion. This will create enormous business opportunities for countries around the world. We hope that the United States will seize these opportunities to increase the export of competitive civilian hi-tech products to China.

Some statistics I have read indicate that tight U.S. control on hi-tech exports has deprived many competitive U.S. companies of the opportunity to enter the Chinese market. Between 2001 and 2011, China's import of hi-tech products increased from $56 billion to $463 billion, up by 23.5 percent annually. Yet in the same period, the share of U.S. hi-tech products in China's total hi-tech imports dropped from 16.7 percent to 6.3 percent. If in 2011, the share of U.S. products in China's total hi-tech imports had been kept at the 2001 level, then the U.S. exports to China would have increased by as much as $50 billion. It is clear that relaxing export control on China is highly beneficial to the United States, and that the most effective way to address China-U.S. trade imbalance is to expand U.S. exports to China, not to restrict China's exports to the United States.

Second, we need to foster a sound environment and raise the level of two-way investment. China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001. Since then, China has fully implemented its WTO commitments. We have made tremendous efforts to revise laws and regulations, substantially lower the threshold for foreign investment, liberalize access to foreign trade operation and oppose protectionism in various forms. Chinese companies, like their American counterparts, have won more international customers through hard work, innovation and fair competition. We will promote greater opening-up of China's economy, and continue to encourage all companies in China, foreign-invested ones included, to engage in fair competition and pursue innovation in the Chinese market, so that they will not only get a bigger share of the market, but also contribute to technological progress and social development. IPR protection provides the incentive for innovation. China is taking steps to build a more open and transparent legal and policy environment. We are strengthening IPR protection through a mixture of judicial and administrative means, including the establishment of a vice-premier-level coordination mechanism for IPR protection, in order to provide a safer business environment for both domestic and foreign-invested enterprises. We hope that the United States will continue to offer a fair and convenient environment for Chinese enterprises investing in America, adopt an objective and sensible approach to investment by Chinese enterprises, and make sure that political factors do not interfere with economic cooperation.