BEIJING - China on Wednesday urged the United States not to make excuses for protectionism with regard to a proposed bill that would push for the appreciation of Renminbi, China's currency.

"It is in our common interests to maintain the sound and stable development of China-US trade relations. We urge some US senators to realize the importance and reciprocal essence of the relations and not to make excuses for protectionism and avoid harming trade cooperation," said Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu.

She made the remarks while commenting a new bill to be pushed in the coming weeks by the US Senate to press the RMB's appreciation.

"We have made it clear many times our stance on promoting the reform of the RMB's exchange rate formation mechanism," Jiang said.

China moved from a conventional dollar-peg system to a managed floating exchange rate system in 2005.