ATHENS: China will address European concerns over investment rules and copyright violations, but wants the EU to relax remaining trade barriers with Beijing in return, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said Sunday. Wen is visiting Greece ahead of an EU-China summit in Brussels this week, and said his country was committed to assisting Europe's post-recession recovery by backing a stable euro and not reducing his country's holdings of bonds from EU countries, despite Europe's sovereign debt crisis. Speaking at Greece's parliament Sunday, Wen urged the EU to recognize China's “full market economy status” and relax remaining restrictions on high-tech exports. “I have repeatedly expressed China's support for a stable euro and said that we will not reduce the amount of European bonds that we hold,” Wen said. “We have stood by the European Union's efforts to overcome its difficulties and achieve recovery.” Wen arrived in Athens Saturday, starting a weeklong trip to the region that will also take him to Italy and Turkey. He sought to ease European concern that overseas companies operating in China face licensing-rule restraints that give local competitors and unfair advantage. “China is willing to continue to bolster its strategic partnership with the EU... to improve the investment environment and strengthen the protection of intellectual property.” The 27-nation European Union is China's largest trading partner, and in 2009 imported 215 billion euros ($295 billion) worth of Chinese goods, according to EU data. Traveling with business leaders and eight members of his Cabinet, Wen vowed to double trade with Greece to $8 billion (5.83 billion euros) within five years, and provide a $5 billion (3.64 billion euros) credit line to Greek shipowners buying Chinese-built vessels. He also promised that China would buy Greek bonds when the crisis-hit country returns to international markets – giving a badly needed boost to Athens which is still excluded from the bond market by prohibitive interest rates. Greece narrowly escaped bankruptcy in May, before it began receiving bailout loans from a ¤110 billion fund set up by the International Monetary Fund and other countries that use the euro to try and curb a worsening Europe-wide debt crisis. Prime Minister George Papandreou's Socialist government is planning to take Greece back to bond markets next year and is pinning hope of a recovery on economic austerity measures and a drive to boost foreign investment. Wen is traveling with top officials from Chinese shipping and transport giant Cosco Group which plans to expand in Greece after securing a $1 billion concession deal last year for the country's largest container-terminal port. On Sunday, Wen visited the ancient Acropolis with Papandreou and met Greek President Karolos Papoulias. China offered on Saturday to buy Greek government bonds when the country returns to markets, in a show of support for the country whose debt burden pushed the euro zone into crisis and required an international bailout. Premier Wen Jiabao made the offer at the start of a two-day visit to Greece, his first stop on a tour of Europe, and also said he wanted to boost shipping and trade ties with Athens, underscoring Beijing's use of economic strength to win friends. “With its foreign exchange reserve, China has already bought and is holding Greek bonds and will keep a positive stance in participating and buying bonds that Greece will issue,” Wen said, speaking through an interpreter. “China will undertake a great effort to support euro zone countries and Greece to overcome the crisis.” In addition to seeing economic opportunities in Greece, China may calculate its support of a struggling European country will help deflect international criticism of its trade policies and its refusal to let its yuan currency appreciate sharply. Wen did not specify how much Greek debt China would be willing to buy or which Chinese entities would buy the bonds. Chinese state entities have been generally conservative about investing in foreign financial markets and the Chinese government faces domestic political criticism over losses incurred by these entities during the global financial crisis. A senior Greek government official said Wen made clear his offer concerned buying bonds only when the country returned to markets. Greece, which is currently funded through a 110 billion euro ($150 billion) EU/IMF bailout, is only issuing short-term T-bills for the time being. Since the true scale of its debt burden emerged late last year, investors have shunned its bonds. The yield they demand to hold 10-year Greek debt has shot up to 10 percent, compared with just 2.3 percent for similar bonds from the euro zone's biggest economy Germany, making it too expensive for Greece to seek long-term funding in international markets. It has said it wants to return to markets some time next year to sell longer-term debt. China, at loggerheads with the US over the yuan, is likely to face similar complaints during this European tour.
