BEIJING, Jan 10: China on Saturday denied allegations that it wanted to close its rail industry to foreign manufacturers and that it had profited from stealing their technology.

It was responding to comments made by Philippe Mellier, chief executive of French firm Alstom Transport, in a recent interview in the Financial Times newspaper.

Mellier called for a boycott of Chinese-made trains, claiming China blocked bids from foreign manufacturers.

“The (Chinese) market is gradually shutting down to let the Chinese companies prosper,” Mellier said in the interview.

“We’re starting to see Chinese companies answering tenders around the world with Chinese freight locomotives, some of them being based on transferred technology,” he said.

China’s Ministry of Railways spokesman Wang Yongping responded at a press conference by calling Mellier’s remarks “irresponsible.”

Wang said China had developed its own high-speed train technology by co-operating with foreign firms such as Alstom.

“Foreign companies gained commercial benefits from the cooperation and we gained our own technologies. The property rights belong to Chinese companies,” Wang said.

Wang said the accusation of closing China’s market to foreign manufacturers was baseless.

Mellier said China was increasingly showing favouritism to its own companies when awarding contracts for big railway and underground projects such as the Shanghai-Beijing high speed line.

Meanwhile, Chinese train manufacturers were increasingly trying to beat sector giants Bombardier, Alstom and Siemens to contracts, particularly in the field of freight, Mellier said.

“If the (Chinese) market closes today, we do not think it is a good idea that other countries open their markets to such a technology because there is no longer any reciprocity,” he said.—AFP