China has been reiterating that it's a firm defender of the World Trade Organization and the multilateral trade system. What's at stake for China to continue fulfilling its WTO promises when the world's trade dynamics are rocky? Xia Cheng reports.

China has been sending a key message to the global market: it is a champion of free trade systems. Part of the benefit of free trade is an increase in direct investment to China.

China's multilateral trade campaign came amid shifting global economic dynamics caused by the US's inward turn. China's position is backed by the World Trade Organization's latest trade policy review.

WILLY ALFARO DIRECTOR OF TRADE POLICIES REVIEW WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION "This illustrates China's role as being one of the key trading partners of the vast majority of the WTO members. So, that explains why this time, a record number of questions have been raised to China before the meeting."

Concerns are rising over China's state-owned companies, subsidies and technology trade.

The ongoing China-US trade spat has been a huge blow to the global market.

Two of the main accusations by the US are China's market barriers and unfair technology trade practices. China has been arguing against both narratives.

WANG SHOUWEN VICE COMMERCE MINISTER "In the trade in goods, we have fulfilled our commitments to reduce our tariffs from 15.3% to 9.8% as early as 2010. Based on this, we took initiatives to reduce tariffs on more than 700 items in 2016, on more than 800 items in 2017, and 900 items this year. In the trade in services, the WTO requires China to open 100 areas, but we've opened 120 today. Who knows China's protection of IPR for the best? companies. In a recent report by the American Chamber of Commerce, it asks about the biggest difficulties in running businesses in China. The protection of IPR ranks 12th. The EU chamber ranks it 11th."

XIA CHENGBEIJING The ultimate beneficiaries of free trade are consumers, the biggest losers of trade wars are ordinary people. When politics and policies are disturbing global trade flows, consumer confidence might tank, businesses could go down and jobs would be hurt. As for China, staying the course of opening up is not only for diplomacy, but also for domestic competition that makes its market fairer, greener and more vibrant in the next decade.

Xia Cheng, CGTN, beijing.