China hopes Finland not to politicize trade issues: spokesman

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.

A new high-speed railway, connecting Xi'an and Ankang cities in northwest China's Shaanxi Province, officially entered the joint commissioning and testing phase on Saturday with the running of the first testing train.

During the commissioning phase, the railway department will simulate the actual train operation conditions, and accordingly conduct comprehensive testing, verification and optimization of various systems such as track, roadbed, bridges and tunnels, power supply, communication, and interface matching, to promptly identify and rectify problems in equipment operation.

The Xi'an-Ankang High-Speed Railway is designed for a speed of 350 kilometers per hour. After it opens to traffic, the travel time between the two cities will be shortened from the current three hours to less than one hour.