China will play an active role, after setting an example in recent years in global economic leadership, in the G20 Hamburg summit with its increasing efforts in pushing forward new concepts in the international community and facilitating free trade, a leading French expert said.

Philippe Le Corre, visiting fellow on China's foreign policy and economy diplomacy at the Washington-based Brookings Institute, discussed this scenario when speaking about the G20 summit in Germany and relations between China, the EU and the US during a visit to Beijing on Tuesday.

"China is the country that introduced most of the interesting concepts in the past two years, including the Belt and Road Initiative, and has been an active member globally in organizing various events. I believe China will play an increasingly active role in the G20 summit this time," he said.

He said the China's global rise has been seen particularly through geo-economic expansion and the rise of its private sector, for example, as well as its substantial increase in investment in EU countries over the past decade.

According to him, China put a record $35 billion of foreign direct investment (FDI) into the EU in 2016, up 77 percent from $23 billion in 2015. He believes that China and the EU, despite divergences, will further boost relations because of trade as well as other key common interests, such as willingness from both to implement a rule-based international order.

He said this year's G20 meeting will be even more interesting especially after the "not very successful G7 dialogue" took place in Bologna, Italy in June, as the G20 summit is one of the key platforms that welcomes countries from around the world to participate.

Contact the writer at zhangyue@chinadaily.com.cn