China firmly upholds global trade rules

Government officials: Nation has fulfilled WTO commitments by protecting intellectual property, lowering tariffs and opening up markets

"Forced technology transfer? No, not that I have heard of in my profession," said businessman Wu Song at the China Refrigeration Exhibition in Beijing this year.

Wu is the general manager of the Chinese branch of Johnson Controls, a global technology developer with a market value of about $30 billion.

Showcasing the company's latest energy-saving systems and refrigeration products, while looking for more partners and clients in China, Wu is not worried about accusations of forced technology transfer. In his view, the allegations from Washington against China are not true.

Johnson Controls is not the only overseas company that feels comfortable with China's intellectual property protection policies. According to a recent survey released by the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China, intellectual property protection does not feature among the top 10 challenges European companies said they face conducting business in China.

In 2001, China paid $1.9 billion in royalties to other countries for use of intellectual property. In 2017, the royalties it paid to the US alone stood at $7.1 billion, according to data from the Ministry of Commerce.

Intellectual property protection is part of China's commitment to the World Trade Organization since its accession in 2001.

For the past 17 years, the country has been a boost to the world economy and a supporter of the multilateral trading system. To better fulfill its responsibility, the world's second-largest economy is on the cusp of a new round of economic opening-up.

To honor the commitments it made to the WTO, China released a white paper titled China and the World Trade Organization in late June. It said the country will pursue a mutually beneficial trade strategy and continue to open up in "a more comprehensive, profound and diversified way".