China hopes that Finland view China's normal development of relations with other countries rationally and refrain from politicizing economic and trade issues, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said at a press briefing in Beijing on Friday.
Guo made the remarks in response to a media query about a comment by Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen, who said China's relationship with Russia is a "disqualifying factor" for a China-EU free trade agreement.
"China-EU economic and trade relations are mutually beneficial in nature. Strengthening dialog and consultation and deepening economic and trade cooperation based on mutual respect are in the interests of both China and the EU and are also what the business community and the wider public would expect," the spokesman said.
"We hope that Finland will view China's normal development of relations with other countries rationally and objectively, maintain an open mind, and refrain from politicizing economic and trade issues, and stop generalizing security issues," said Guo.
China hopes Finland not to politicize trade issues: spokesman
China's domestic tourism market posted solid growth in terms of both trips and travel spending from January to September this year, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism (MCT) said on Monday.
More than 5.3 billion domestic trips were made during the first nine months of 2026, up 6.2 percent year on year, data from a survey of domestic travelers conducted by the ministry revealed.
Urban residents accounted for over 4 billion trips, an increase of 6.6 percent from a year earlier, while rural residents made 1.27 billion trips, marking a 5.1-percent rise.
Domestic tourism spending expanded 2.2 percent year on year to 4.95 trillion yuan (about 737 billion U.S. dollars) during these nine months. Of the total, urban residents spent 4.14 trillion yuan, up 2.2 percent, while rural residents spent 810 billion yuan, rising 2.1 percent.
China aims to record 8.3 billion year-round domestic trips and 7.7 trillion yuan in year-round domestic travel spending by 2030, according to a five-year tourism development plan for the 2026-2030 period released by the MCT in July.
In 2025, the country saw more than 6.5 billion domestic trips, with tourism expenditure reaching 6.3 trillion yuan, both setting new records.
China sees steady growth in domestic tourism over first 9 months of 2026
