China will step up efforts to foster new growth drivers through innovation-led development as the country charts its economic work for the coming year, a senior official said on Friday.
Addressing the 2025-2026 Annual Conference on China's Economy in Beijing on Saturday, Han Wenxiu, executive deputy director of the Office of the Central Committee for Financial and Economic Affairs, said economic work next year should remain firmly focused on innovation-driven development and accelerate the cultivation and expansion of new growth engines.
"It is essential to promote industrial upgrading through scientific and technological innovation and continuously foster new quality productive forces. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in 2012, the CPC Central Committee has successively launched the construction of three international science and technology innovation centers in Beijing, Shanghai and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, which have made notable progress in recent years," Han noted.
He noted that building high-level innovation platforms is a key step in strengthening China's capacity for original innovation and supporting the country's long-term development strategy.
"The CPC Central Committee has decided to expand the Beijing International Center for Science and Technology Innovation to cover the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, and the Shanghai International Science and Technology Innovation Center to the Yangtze River Delta, with the aim of accelerating the formation of major sources of original innovation and jointly building strategic pillars for the development of China into a science and technology powerhouse," the official continued.
China maps out innovation-focused economic agenda for 2026
World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Saturday depicted as "untrue" the reasons given by the United States for its withdrawal from the global health watchdog.
On the social platform X, the WHO chief noted that the move will make the United States itself and the world "less safe."
U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Jan. 20, 2025, the first day of his second term to formally initiate the U.S. exit from the UN specialized agency. The United Nations received the formal notice two days later.
Under the UN charter, the withdrawal takes effect one year after notice is given.
Commending the contribution made by the United States as a founding member to many of WHO's greatest achievements, Tedros wrote in the X post, "Unfortunately, the reasons cited for the U.S. decision to withdraw from WHO are untrue."
The U.S. move "makes both the U.S. and the world less safe," he said, expressing hope that the United States "will return to active participation in WHO in the future."
Also on Saturday, the WHO issued a statement, voicing regret over the U.S. withdrawal and rejecting accusations made by the Trump administration.
The U.S. withdrawal raises issues that will be considered by the WHO Executive Board at its regular meeting starting on Feb. 2 and by the World Health Assembly at its annual meeting in May 2026, it said.
In dealing with the consequences, the WHO Secretariat "will act on advice and guidance of our governing bodies accordingly," a WHO press official told Xinhua in an email Wednesday.
The United States has yet to pay its outstanding membership dues, according to the official. "As of today, the USA has not paid the invoiced amounts for its assessed contributions for the biennium 2024-2025," the official said.
The U.S.-based National Public Radio (NPR) reported that the outstanding amount is estimated to total some 278 million U.S. dollars.
WHO chief says U.S. reasons for withdrawal 'untrue'
