China on Thursday voiced "grave concern" over the trade probe of imported Chinese-made wireless wide-area networking modems launched by the European Union (EU).

On Wednesday, the EU began an investigation into safeguard measures concerning the import of Chinese-made modems and an anti-dumping probe into these imports, worth 4.1 billion U.S. dollars.

An unnamed official with the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) said in a statement posted on its website that the Chinese wireless wide-area networking modems are high-tech products, which have promoted innovation, opened new markets and also benefited consumers.

"The EU's move is typical trade protectionism and abuses trade remedies. It will not only hamper the EU' s economic recovery, but also impair China' s interests and technological progress", the MOC official said.

He added that the EU probes runs contrary to the consensus the G-20 leaders reached during their meeting in Toronto over the weekend.

He noted China and the EU are important trading partners, which lays a solid foundation of Sino-EU relations. China has been advocating discussions and consultations with the EU to deal with trade friction and to also encourage cooperation between business enterprises from the two regions, rather than resorting to trade protectionism measures.

China will closely watch the progress of the investigation while abiding by the rules of the World Trade Organization. Also, it retains the right to launch further measures to deal with these developments, the official said.