By Xinhua
Beijing : China is willing to increase imports from the United States and resume human rights dialogue with Washington, Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said here Wednesday.
“China is ready to hold human rights dialogue with the US side on the basis of equality and mutual respect,” Yang said at a press conference on the sidelines of the country’s parliamentary session.
Yang’s remark came in the wake of a US government annual report on human rights across the world, which is critical of China.
“But we are strongly opposed to the practices of clinging to the Cold War mentality, drawing lines according to ideology, launching confrontation and exercising double standards on human rights issues, and interfering in China’s domestic affairs in the name of human rights,” he said.
Yang said trade and economic cooperation benefit both sides and the trade imbalance can be attributable to globalisation on the one hand and the trade structure on the other.
China has been a favoured destination for international investment. Some 60 percent of China’s exports to the United States are produced by foreign companies or Chinese-foreign joint ventures.
“Many of them are US companies,” the foreign minister said.
China would work with the US side to ensure bilateral trade and economic cooperation bring more benefits to people of the two countries, he added.