On Aug 28, Premier Li Keqiang met Francis Gurry, director general of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), who came to attend a high level meeting regarding Belt and Road intellectual property rights (IPR) in Beijing.

Protecting intellectual property rights is the cornerstone of the market economy, the Premier said. “To protect it is to protect the innovation and passion of creative talents.”

“Under the background of the new-round technology revolution, innovation has been becoming the first driver of development in the world,” he said.

“As the world’s largest developing country, China is at a critical stage of economic upgrading and will adopt a stricter IPR protection system. Acts of infringing on intellectual property rights will be severely punished,” the Premier said.

“We treat domestic and foreign enterprises equally and will never allow compulsory technology transfer,” he said.

Premier Li said China is willing to deepen cooperation with the WIPO, jointly promote open, inclusive, balanced and effective international rules on intellectual property rights and make new contributions to improve the global governance system of IPR.

He stressed that China firmly upholds multilateralism.

Gurry appreciated the impressive achievements China has made. Over the past 40 years, China has established a high-level IPR protection system, making intellectual property rights as the driving force of innovation and economic development, while treating Chinese and foreign enterprises in an equal way, he said.

He congratulated China on its significant rise in the ranking of the 2018 Global Innovation Index and said he believes that China’s progress will continue.

WIPO is ready to continue promoting cooperation with China, maintaining multilateralism and dealing with challenges together, he said.