China welcomes countries to "take free ride": FM spokesperson

BEIJING, Jan. 25 (Xinhua) -- China welcomes other countries to "take a free ride" on its high-speed development, while firmly defending its rights and interests, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said here Thursday.

Media reported that some U.S. officials said China did a good job in promoting free trade, but in fact actually practiced extreme protectionism.

Spokesperson Hua Chunying said the world knows which country is actually promoting protectionism, emphasizing its own national interest, and adopting the beggar-thy-neighbor approach.

Chinese leaders have repeatedly stated that China will never close its door to the rest of the world, Hua said, adding that the country took some practical measures on relaxing the control over its financial market access at the end of last year.

Senior Chinese official Liu He, who recently attended the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, also explained China's determination to continue opening-up and to safeguard multilateralism and the multilateral trading system, Hua said.

Liu is a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and director of the General Office of the Central Leading Group for Financial and Economic Affairs. Enditem