China is willing to increase imports from the United States and resume human rights dialogue with the U.S. side, Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said here Wednesday.

"China is ready to hold human rights dialogue with the U.S.side on the basis of equality and mutual respect," Yang said at a press conference on the sidelines of the country's parliamentary session.

Yang's remark also came in wake of a U.S. government annual report on human rights across the world, which is critical of China.

"But we are strongly opposed to the practices of clinging to the Cold War mentality, drawing lines according to ideology, launching confrontation and exercising double standards on human rights issues, and interfering in China's domestic affairs in the name of human rights."

Yang said trade and economic cooperation benefit both sides and the trade imbalance can be attributable to economic globalization on the one hand and the trade structure on the other.

China has been a favored destination for international investment. Some 60 percent of China's exports to the United States are produced by foreign companies or Chinese-foreign joint ventures.

"Many of them are U.S. companies," the foreign minister said.

While China has surplus in commodity trade, the U.S. side enjoys surplus in service trade, said Yang.

The minister went on to emphasize that "the United States' strict limitation on high-tech export to China is a major reason for China's surplus and the U.S. deficit in China-U.S. trade."

China is willing to increase imports from the U.S. although it is already one of the fastest growing exports market for the United States, said Yang.

China would work with the U.S.side to ensure bilateral trade and economic cooperation brings more benefits to people of the two countries, he added.

(Xinhua News Agency March 12, 2008)