China’s Ministry of Commerce spokesman Shen Danyang. [Photo: sina.com]

Chinese authorities are allowing foreign capital to participate in reforms of state-owned enterprises, in the form of mergers and acquisitions.

Ministry of Commerce spokesman Shen Danyang made the remark on Wednesday.

"The global cross-border mergers and acquisitions accounted for 38 percent of the global foreign investment in 2015, while investment from foreign investors to China only accounted for 14 percent of the aggregate investment with 18 billion dollars. Obviously, foreign M&A has been going up steadily in China in recent years, but the scale and proportion are still far lower than the international level."

With China's limited energy resources bearing capacity, the minister says he believes that it's conducive to driving the industrial transformation and upgrading, and further promoting Chinese SOEs' international competitiveness by encouraging foreign capital M&A.

At the same time, Shen Danyang adds China is optimistic about the prospects for economic and trade cooperation between China and the United States.

"China is exporting to the US on a large scale currently and the U.S. anti-dumping and anti-subsidy measures have involved many Chinese products. We hope the US can be objective, transparent and impartial during law enforcement to avoid hindering normal customs clearance."

Official data shows bilateral trade between China and the US reached 560 billion U.S. dollars last year.

Chinese companies have invested in over 40 states in the US, creating at least 80-thousand job opportunities.