China will likely pay more attention to the protection of foreign investors' legitimate interests and rights, while continuing to broaden market access for them, according to Zhang Wei, vice-president of the Ministry of Commerce's Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation.

She pointed out, the report delivered to the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of China used "appropriate" to describe the future downsize of the negative lists for foreign investment, while in the past, the country has actively expanded foreign investment access to the Chinese market.

That means simply expanding market access may not be what the foreign investors hope for, nor a main goal of China's work on foreign investment, Zhang said.

Instead, building a sound business climate to facilitate better development of foreign enterprises in China will not only become what the foreign investors want, but also a key task of China's opening-up in the foreign investment sector, she added.