Parties in planning

Also on Monday, Vice-President Xi Jinping met a group of leading EU politicians who are in Beijing for a high-level forum.

At the opening ceremony, Martin Schulz, chair of the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament, said he is impressed with China's economic development, which has made it the holder of the world's largest foreign exchange reserve.

He and other elite EU political party leaders expected to talk with Chinese politicians about cooperation between the two economies, especially in regards to China's 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015) and the Europe 2020 Strategy, he said.

The two massive plans "are not only about the development of China and the EU, but will also exert a major influence on the global economy," said Liu Yunshan, head of the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee.

Representatives of 32 parties from 20 countries, five party groups in the European Parliament and a regional political party of Europe along with senior officials of the Communist Party of China and several Chinese scholars attended the three-day event, which will conclude in Tianjin on Wednesday.