Talking about mutual investment, I also heard complaints from some business people. Before we normalized our relations, there was virtually zero mutual investment. And there was also zero complaint too. But now, U.S. investment in China has grown to over 70 billion dollars. So how is it possible for it to be completely problem-free. But I will make it clear here that China will only open even wider to the outside world. Now we are having this BIT negotiation with the U.S. on a basis of pre-establishment national treatment and a negative list approach. This sends a very positive message to the business communities in both China and the U.S. for mutual investment to go steady and in a positive direction.
Over the past three years, the Chinese government has made tremendous efforts to streamline its administration and delegate powers to ease the restrictions on doing business. For example, in terms of the number of items and areas where foreign investment is restricted, that number is halved, and we intend to cut it further.
Sometimes I would receive letters from some U.S. business people expressing concerns or complaints. Honestly, I take the issues expressed in these letters seriously. I don' t want to see individual issues affecting China-U.S. business ties. But at the same time, I also receive reports from Chinese governmental departments. They told me that in the first half of 2016, U.S. investment in China has grown by 1.2 times. I have also seen reports from the U.S. CBC saying that over 90 percent of U.S. companies making investment in China are making profits.
I think these two tally with each other. For such a large economy as China, as it undertakes massive reform, it will take a step-by-step process. There may be some twists and turns in the cooperation process in certain localities or sectors. But the overall trend is that China will only open wider to the world; a door that has been opened cannot be closed again.
On China' s big data and cloud computing industries and access of foreign capital, Premier Li said: Big data and cloud computing are fast-growing industries in China. On the whole, they have played a positive role in China' s economic transformation. But at the same time, some problems also surfaced. Recently, there has been a case of someone using big data to commit fraud that has led to family tragedies, theft of trade secrets and unlawful disclosure of personal information. So we are exploring ways to improve relevant regulations.
China' s big data and cloud computing industries should be open and safe, capable of protecting commercial secrets and personal information and allowing systems to operate in a safe and secure environment. So we will do it bit by bit, and we are ready to discuss with foreign companies how we can find an effective way to develop these industries that we can keep them open and secure.
On the very day that I arrived in New York, I read about the chief of a very important U.S. agency warning that when you are not using Skype or other video communication programs, you need to seal off the camera on your computers physically. Otherwise, you will have your privacy exposed. I already told my ministers that this is very important. Measures to protect information security need to be improved.
