The more China developed and expanded its foreign trade over the past decade, the more the competition from emerging nations grew and the greater the conflicts of interest and trade disputes emerged.

These are some of the major types of friction it has encountered, since China's entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO):

Problems: By October of this year, there had been 747 probes of Chinese trade practices, involving about $42.9 billion worth of trade. China was involved in the largest number of anti-dumping probes over a 16-year period and the largest number of subsidy cases or probes for five consecutive years.

Trade barriers, intellectual property rights, and taxation measures for import restrictions or bans: In 2010, 31.7 percent of China's exporters were affected by technical trade barriers abroad, leading to $58.2 billion worth of losses.

Institutional friction: In recent years, there has been growing friction between China, the US and the European Union over renminbi exchange rates, innovation policies, and intellectual property rights protection.

WTO dispute settlements: China has been a defendant in 22 cases involving WTO disputes and settlements, in the areas of trade, intellectual property rights, and export restrictions. The accusations have had adverse effects on trade and have posed a challenge to the country's economic, cultural and political systems.

Finding a better way to lessen trade friction is tremendously important for a sound international trade environment.

We have constantly supported an outward cooperation mechanism and have already set up a trade remedy mechanism with 16 major trade partners, such as the United States, the European Union, Canada, Russia, India and Brazil.

And we've developed more countermeasures and ways to deal with trade disputes.

We have also stuck to a strategy of combining multi-lateral talks and bilateral talks and have multi-faceted measures, such as lodging a political protest, providing a legal defense, alliances with industries, or public relations and lobbying campaigns.

We aim to do our best to ensure the rights of our companies and to build a sound foreign trade environment.

At the same time, we've increased public services to reduce trade friction and have given priority to information sharing and training, which has increased our ability to deal with trade frictions.

After China was accepted as a member of the WTO, 10 years ago, we began work on a legal system to handle trade complaints and have continued to improve it.

We initiated 62 trade probes, involving more than 200 companies, across 10 industries, including chemicals, automobiles, and agricultural products.

We believe that, within the WTO framework, that the Doha Round of talks and trade remedies under the free trade zone agreement are an important part of fair trade.

We'll join in on negotiations to clarify and improve regulations, tighten rules, prevent abuses, and reflect the interests of all sides.And our aim is to rein in trade protectionism and work for a fair international trade environment.

Through our continued efforts, we've managed to improve our ability to join in the rule-making process.

China has gone from a passive recipient of international trade rules to a key player with influence and a voice in making and revising those rules.

We've taken an active part in the free-trade-zone negotiating process and have completed negotiations with 10 countries and regions on trade remedies in line with the free-trade-zone agreement and have pushed for talks with five other countries and regions.

The author is director-general of the Ministry of Commerce's Bureau of Fair Trade For Imports and Exports, China.