China is willing to discuss with Japan the establishment of free trade area (FTA), said Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao in Beijing on Thursday. 

Liu was commenting on Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's remarks on the establishment of an FTA with China. A Japanese reporter said Abe was considering the issue, but had concerns about intellectual property rights (IPR) protection.

Liu said free trade would be conducive to the long-term stable development of China-Japan economic and trade relations, and were in the interests of both countries, as economic globalization and regional integration developed.

It was also in the interests of China to protect IPR, and the government had taken a series of effective measures and made important progress in this regard.

The government would take more administrative and legislative measures to strengthen IPR protection, and was willing to cooperate with other countries in this field.

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