China will keep encouraging foreign investment despite criticism of foreign influence and concerns that inflows are swelling the country's currency reserves, a senior official said in comments published Monday.

The reaffirmation of China's long-standing policy of attracting foreign investment by Hu Jingyan, head of the Ministry of Commerce's foreign investment office, feeds into an increasingly vibrant debate on the direction of China's economic reforms.

"China will not change the policy of encouraging foreign investment," the China Securities Journal cited Hu as saying.

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