The Chinese government released a document on Sunday calling for more protection of intellectual property rights (IPR), one issue at the center of trade talks with the U.S. "Strengthening IPR protection is the most important content of improving the IPR protection system and also the biggest incentive to boost China's economic competitiveness," said the document, released by the General Offices of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and the State Council. The guidelines advise "speeding up the introduction of a punitive compensation system for infringements of patents and copyrights, and strengthening the protection of trade secrets, confidential business information and their source codes." In addition, it also says China needs to step up international cooperation in IPR protection and help communication between domestic and foreign rights holders and provide support in overseas IPR disputes. The development comes as investors have been scaling back hopes for a phase-one agreement between Bejing and Washington before the end of the year. Such a deal was expected to set the stage for dealing with a chief U.S. complaint, that China steals intellectual property.