China's corporate social credit system won't be used to crack down on law-abiding, compliant foreign companies, a Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) spokesperson said on Thursday.

The building of such a system is intended to forge a more standardized, open, transparent and predictable business environment, Gao Feng told a press briefing in Beijing.

China will fully protect the trade secrets and the intellectual property of companies and treat different market entities in a fair manner, Gao said, in reference to the corporate social credit system.

The country will not discriminate against foreign companies operating in China and will never use the system as a weapon to crack down on them, Gao said, allaying concerns raised by some Western media outlets. 

"Law-abiding, compliant foreign companies have nothing to worry about regarding the new system," Gao said. 

Various Western media reports have floated the idea that the new system could become a "weapon in the trade war," or "something that will be imposed upon foreign companies" after a report released this week by the EU Chamber of Commerce in China focused on the issue. 

"Businesses in China need to prepare for the consequences, to ensure that they live by the score, not die by the score," chamber president Jörg Wuttke said.

The report referred to a Chinese government plan to let the corporate social credit system play a full role by next year in encouraging compliance and punishing a lack of compliance.

Li Jianming, deputy director at the China Enterprise Confederation, said China has been working on a central appraisal system of companies with the help of shared data compiled by different government departments and it will be a component of the market economy. 

"The ultimate purpose is to guide Chinese companies to have better compliance," Li told the Global Times on Thursday. 

In effect, the system might be more favorable to foreign companies as they generally have better compliance levels, Li said.

Gao said the new system would be separate from China's unreliable entity list, which can punish companies on the grounds of national security. The list is still in the process of being rolled out.