(Yicai Global) Feb. 2 -- China has responded to US President Donald Trump calling the world's second largest economy a rival along with Russia in his State of the Union address. China prefers to regard the US as a partner in the age of trade, said Gao Feng, spokesman for the ministry of commerce.

Both China and the US have become close and cooperative partners in the area of economy and trade, Gao reminded. On Jan. 31, US President Trump made his first State of the Union address after assuming office. The US not only wants fair trade but also reciprocal trade, he said in his address. He called China and Russia rivals and claimed that these countries challenge the interests, economy and values of the US.

We hope that the so-called "fair trade" will be one based on international rules rather than using the unilateral standards above international rules, Gao said in response. The so-called "reciprocal trade" should be based on mutually beneficial market behavior, rather than regarding trade as a "zero-sum game" and taking market openness as the sole criterion for determining reciprocity regardless of the conditions of a country, he stressed.

At present, China and the US are each other's most important trading partner and source of investment. The bilateral trade volume last year exceeded USD580 billion. As China's President Xi Jinping pointed out, the essence of the China-US economic and trade relations is mutual benefit. The economic and trade cooperation between the two sides has brought tremendous benefits to the two nations and their peoples, he said.

China hopes the US will abandon the Cold War mentality, and will not politicize economic and trade issues to genuinely comply with the demands of the enterprises in both countries, pragmatically promote bilateral economic and trade cooperation, continuously expand common interests and push China-US economic and trade relations in the right direction.

Gao also referred to the "2018 China Business Climate Survey Report" released by the American Chamber of Commerce in China. Most US companies in China continue to be optimistic about the world's second largest market, recognizing that the investment environment is continuously improving and their investment confidence in China is strengthened.

Some 74 percent of US companies planned to expand their investment in China this year, the highest rate in recent years, the report showed. About 60 percent of the Chamber member companies regard China as one of the top three investment destinations. The firms surveyed almost unanimously believe that in recent years, China's enforcement efforts on intellectual property protection remained stable or improved. Some 46 percent of the respondents believe that in the next three years China will further open its markets to foreign investment and some 62 percent believe the transparency of Chinese government policy formulation and communication has improved over the past five years, Gao said.