EU replaces U.S. as biggest trading partner of China
www.chinaview.cn 2006-09-15 08:11:05 <http://www.chinaview.cn/wen0908/index.htm> HAMBURG, Sept. 14 (Xinhua) -- The EU replaced the United States as China's biggest trading partner last year, said Xu Kuangding, chairman of the China Federation of Industrial Economics (CFIE) on Thursday. As one of the keynote speakers at the opening of a Sino-European economic summit, Xu said Sino-European trade, with a volume of 217.3 billion U.S. dollars, has exceeded the Sino-U.S. trade volume by some 5.7 billion dollars. European companies such as Airbus, Siemens, Nokia and Volkswagen, made the EU the fourth largest investor in China and China's most important supplier of technology, Xu said in a speech at the second Hamburg Summit -- "China meets Europe." Speaking of EU's concern over intellectual property rights protection in China, Xu asked European business leaders to show a little more patience on this issue. "Until fairly recently, China had a long history of having a largely agrarian-based economy where it was customary to try and learn from one's neighbors. The concept of intellectual property was therefore quite new to China's burgeoning industrial sector," he said. The Chamber of Commerce Hamburg, which initiated the summit, expected more than 350 economic, political and scientific leaders from both China and Europe to attend the event which will run until Friday. Enditem Premier Wen: Sino-EU ties "stronger than ever" <http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-09/14/content_5091543.htm> HAMBURG, Germany, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- The relationship between China and the Europe Union (EU) was "stronger than ever before," Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said here Wednesday at a Sino-European economic summit. The two sides had put in place a mechanism of annual meetings between the leaders, established a comprehensive strategic partnership and were negotiating a new set of agreements on partnership and cooperation, Wen said in a speech at the 2nd Hamburg Summit entitled "China meets Europe." The EU had been China's largest trade partner for two years and China was the first non-EU country to participate in the Galileo program, which "epitomized the extensive and multi-dimensional China-EU cooperation and marked a new stage of sound and stable growth of our relationship," said the premier. China committed to pursuing peaceful development <http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-09/14/content_5091337.htm> HAMBURG, Germany, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- China remained committed to pursuing peaceful development and it had not posed, did not and would never pose any threat to other countries, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said here on Wednesday at a Sino-European economic summit. In pursuing peaceful development, China aimed at only one thing,that was, to secure a peaceful international environment for its development and to promote world peace through that development, said Wen in a speech at the 2nd Hamburg Summit entitled "China meets Europe." China committed to pursuing peaceful development <http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-09/14/content_5091337.htm> HAMBURG, Germany, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- China remained committed to pursuing peaceful development and it had not posed, did not and would never pose any threat to other countries, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said here on Wednesday at a Sino-European economic summit. In pursuing peaceful development, China aimed at only one thing,that was, to secure a peaceful international environment for its development and to promote world peace through that development, said Wen in a speech at the 2nd Hamburg Summit entitled "China meets Europe."
