A spokesman for the Chinese Commerce Ministry says that China's investment environment is becoming more transparent for overseas investors. Spokesman Shen Danyang's comments Tuesday followed criticism that China is tightening market access to overseas companies and treating them unfairly.

Shen said that some foreign companies dependent on low costs and preferential policies are facing operational difficulties in China. Shen acknowledged that production costs are increasing in China and competition remains fierce. But he said competitive foreign companies know China's investment environment is getting better because of improved laws and regulations. Shen says fresh data backs his points.

"Last year, China's Foreign Direct Investment increased 6.4 percent year on year. In the first eight months of this year, the FDI has grown by 4.5 percent. Meanwhile, China has been the number one country in term of using FDI among developing countries for 24 consecutive years. According to the American Chamber of Commerce in China, more than 60 percent of its members rated China as one of their top three investment destinations worldwide. Nearly 70 percent of its members plan to expand their investment in China. Moreover, many multinational companies joined the recent G20 Summit in Hangzhou and the International Investment Forum in Xiamen. These all reflected that most overseas companies are confident about investing in China," he said.