Reuters reported that China's top official newspaper on Friday defended the dominance of state-owned companies, signaling they will remain bulwarks of economic policy despite a series of moves to spur private investment.

Chinese policymakers have pushed in recent weeks to open investor access to the energy, power and transport sectors in order to shore up cooling growth.

But a volley of signed commentaries in the People's Daily -- the main paper of China's ruling Communist Party -- stressed that state-owned firms will remain the "mainstay" of the economy, ensuring that the party itself remains a crucial economic actor, said the report.

"We must stress the fundamental fact that our country implements a socialist market economy, and state-owned enterprises are indispensable," said the commentary by Yang Chengxun, a professor from Henan province in central China, according to the report.

"Rather, they should become an important symbol and pillar of our socialist market economy, one that can be called the 'first mainstay'," Yang wrote of state firms.

Reuters said the People's Daily broadly reflects thinking within the Chinese government. Its broadside against calls for sweeping privatization appears intended to cool hopes, or fears, that Beijing's concessions to private investors could mark a strategic retreat from support for state conglomerates.

State giants dominate China's oil and gas sector. China's main telecoms, rail and mining companies are all state-owned, as are the biggest banks which operate as instruments of centrally-directed monetary policy.

The top executives of the most important banks and companies are appointed by the government and typically hold official ranks equivalent to that of vice-minister.

The People's Daily argued that such conglomerates are crucial to advancing innovation and economic security, although pro-privatization economists have argued China's favoring of these firms is strangling long-term growth and development.

"Currently, multinational companies are striving to control our country's major industries, hoping to become the overlords of some sectors, and only strong state-owned enterprises have the ability to contend with them," said the paper.

Reuters said such state media comments could reinforce the skepticism of analysts who have said China is unlikely to rein in drastically the economic role of the state, given that its stranglehold over swathes of the world's second-largest economy has been unchallenged for years.

But the People's Daily argued there is no contradiction between backing state firms and encouraging private business, said the report.