Beijing (CNN) Beijing is promising new measures to protect foreign companies operating in China, its latest apparent move to mollify US President Donald Trump.

The Communist government on Sunday submitted a draft of a new law to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, the country's rubber-stamp parliament, highlighting provisions aimed at better protecting foreign companies' intellectual property.

The proposed foreign investment law would prohibit forced technology transfer from foreign firms to their Chinese partners, a major grievance of Trump and other critics.

The move was welcomed by Harley Seyedin, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in South China, who described it as "significant and the correct move by the Chinese government."

But he cautioned that foreign companies in China would still face other obstacles even under the planned changes, including a lack of enforcement and "unfair treatment" by local governments.

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