Chinese President Xi Jinping has promised to open the country's economy further and lower import tariffs on products including cars, in a speech seen as conciliatory amid rising trade tensions with the United States.
While most of the pledges were reiterations of previously announced measures, Xi's comments sent US stock futures, the dollar and Asian shares higher.
Xi said that China will sharply widen market access for foreign investors, a chief complaint of the country's trading partners and a point of contention for US President Donald Trump's administration.
The speech at the Boao Forum for Asia in the southern province of Hainan had been widely anticipated as one of Xi's first major addresses in a year.
Xi said China would raise the foreign ownership limit in the automobile sector "as soon as possible" and push previously announced measures to open the financial sector.
"This year, we will considerably reduce auto import tariffs, and at the same time reduce import tariffs on some other products," he said.
Chinese officials have been promising since at least 2013 to ease restrictions on foreign joint ventures in the auto industry, which would allow foreign companies to take a majority stake.
Foreign business groups welcomed Xi's commitment to reforms, including promises to strengthen legal deterrence on intellectual property violators, but said the speech fell short on specifics.
"Ultimately US industry will be looking for implementation of long-stalled economic reforms, but actions to date have greatly undermined the optimism of the US business community," Jacob Parker, vice president of China operations at the US-China Business Council, said.
Jonas Short, head of Beijing office at Everbright Sun Hung Kai said the market reacted positively to Xi's speech because it saw it as an easing of trade tensions, but voiced caution about the likely extent of such reforms.
"China is opening sectors where they already have a distinct advantage, or a stranglehold over the sector," Short said, citing China's banking industry, which is dominated by domestic players.
Trump's move last week to threaten China with tariffs on $US50 billion in Chinese goods was aimed at forcing Beijing to address what Washington says is deeply entrenched theft of US intellectual property and forced technology transfers from US companies.
Chinese officials deny such charges, and responded within hours of Trump's announcement of tariffs with their own proposed commensurate duties.
The move prompted Trump last week to threaten tariffs on an additional $100 billion in Chinese goods.
