China tells U.S. it is reforming but needs time

ANNAPOLIS, Maryland (Reuters) - China is making progress tackling a range of thorny trade issues but the United States and other countries must understand that it is still a developing economy and needs time, a top official said on Tuesday.

Speaking at the opening of two days of economic talks with the United States at the U.S. Naval Academy, Vice Premier Wang Qishan said China has made significant efforts to open its financial services sector, beef up protection of intellectual property rights, and improve food and product safety.

Beijing has also made concrete progress in addressing China's large trade surplus with the United States and reforming the yuan's exchange rate regime, both of which are long-standing sources of tension, he said.

"But solving some types of problems requires a process and needs to consider China's national conditions and stage of development, the shift in global production and division of labor, as well as the international financial system and other complicated considerations," Wang said.

"We hope the U.S. will place great emphasis on China's concerns," he said.

Wang's comments, his first as head of the Chinese delegation to the "strategic economic dialogue" with the United States, underline Beijing's stance that while it is committed to reform, trading partners should not expect too much too fast because China is still a relatively poor country.

U.S. businesses and politicians regularly point to China's shortcomings in market openness, lax protection of intellectual property rights, and what they say is an artificially weak currency as reasons behind its large trade surplus with the United States, which surpassed $256 billion last year.

Wang, in an essay in The Wall Street Journal, also said that China was making progress stamping out intellectual property piracy by implementing a new national strategy on intellectual property rights protection.

Wang said that Beijing would revise laws in this area and ramp up punishments for infractions. Business groups complain that low thresholds for making cases criminal hampers the implementation of laws protecting intellectual property rights.

"As a developing country in the process of accelerating industrialization and urbanization, China still has a long way to go before it can catch up with the U.S. in IPR generation, usage, protection and management," Wang wrote in the Journal.

"We hope that China and the U.S. can work more closely on intellectual property rights, duly recognize their disparities in capabilities and standards of IPR protection, and properly handle their differences and disputes," he said.

(Editing by Leslie Adler)