Multinationals have strong desire to expand presence in China: commerce official

BEIJING, Feb. 20 (Xinhua) -- Multinationals are optimistic about the long-term prospects of investing in China and have a strong willingness to expand their presence in the country, Zhu Bing, an official of the Ministry of Commerce, said on Thursday.

Stressing that China's economy has a stable foundation, many advantages, strong resilience, and great potential, Zhu said at a press conference that the long-term positive trend and the underlying support conditions for China's economy will not change.

Zhu said China would continue to strive to build a world-class business environment and share its development opportunities with more foreign-funded enterprises.

Commenting on the United States' practice of imposing additional tariffs on China, the official said it seriously violates the rules of the World Trade Organization.

Zhu said such a practice fails to solve the U.S.'s problems and disrupts normal economic and trade cooperation between the two countries.

"This approach undermines the development of foreign-invested enterprises in China, including those from the United States, and interferes with the investment decisions of multinationals," Zhu said.