China on Monday requested the World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute settlement mechanism to set up an expert panel over the United States' Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).
Underlining important contributions China's new energy vehicle (NEV) industry has made to global green energy transition and global response to climate change, a spokesperson of China's Ministry of Commerce said that China in March requested WTO consultations regarding parts of the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act that subsidize NEVs. As the U.S. failed to reach a solution with China through consultations, the Chinese side put up a request for the setup of an expert panel.
The spokesperson pointed out that the U.S. IRA sets a premise on the use of products from the United States and other designated regions for subsidies, excluding products from China and other WTO members, artificially setting up trade barriers, and driving up the cost of green energy transition. No matter how the Act is sugar-coated, it cannot change the discriminatory, protectionist, and WTO-rule violating nature of the subsidies involved, the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson pointed out that China's resolute advancement of the litigation process is to take practical actions to safeguard the authority and effectiveness of the WTO-centered multilateral trading system, and to safeguard the joint international efforts to address climate change.
China agrees that WTO members should implement industrial subsidies in a manner in compliance with WTO rules, support green energy transformation, and promote economic and social development, the spokesperson said, stressing that China once again urges the United States to abide by WTO rules and stop abusing industrial policies to undermine international cooperation on climate change.
China requests WTO to establish panel over US act
China will intensify its efforts to expand the availability of high-quality educational resources and further enhance the quality of its higher education system, Zheng Shanjie, head of the National Development and Reform Commission, said in Beijing on Thursday.
Zheng outlined several key measures designed to enhance the country's education sector and better adapt to the changes in its school-age population, at the press conference held on the sidelines of the third session of 14th National People's Congress (NPC), China's national legislature.
"In response to changes in the school-age population in the coming years, we will expand the supply of high-quality educational resources and implement various measures, such as balancing teacher allocation, to integrate more schools into group-based education or trustee assistance programs. Our goal is to establish tens of thousands of new and high-quality schools for compulsory education, and build thousands of high-standard general high schools," he said.
Zheng also emphasized China's commitment to continuously enhancing the quality of education and ensuring more students have access to higher education.
"At the same time, continuous efforts will be made to enhance and elevate the quality of higher education, including expanding access to high-quality undergraduate colleges and increasing enrollment at universities under the 'Double World-Class Project.' Last year, enrollment at high-quality undergraduate colleges rose by 16,000 students, and this year, the goal is to further increase the enrollment by an additional 20,000 students. In short, we will strive to ensure that more students have access to fairer and higher-quality education," said Zheng.
China unveiled the "double world-class project" in 2017, which aimed at building 42 world-class universities and developing hundreds of world-class academic disciplines covering 95 universities.
China to boost educational resources, enhance higher education: official
