Chinese President Xi Jinping touched on plans to further open up the Chinese economy during a Tuesday address.
Those measures included "significantly" lowering import tariffs for autos, decreasing duties on other products, enforcing the legal intellectual property of foreign firms and improving the investment environment for international companies.
Xi's address — from the Boao Forum for Asia — comes amid escalating trade tensions between China and the U.S. as the world's two largest economies take turns announcing punitive trade measures against each other.
In his speech, Xi said China will take the initiative to expand imports this year and "work hard" to import products that are required by the population.
Beyond that, he described China as a country upon which other nations had imposed unfair trade penalties: "We hope developed countries will stop imposing restrictions on normal and reasonable trade of high-tech products and relax export controls on such trade with China," he said, not naming any specific country.
In his speech, the Chinese president sold a vision of China as a benevolent leader of the global economy, emphasizing that open systems are the best course of action for the world.
Instead, he said, countries should "stay committed to openness, connectivity and mutual benefits, build an open global economy, and reinforce cooperation within the G-20, (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) APEC and other multilateral frameworks. We should promote trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, support the multilateral trading system."
