BEIJING, China (PNN) - June 14, 2012 - China has rejected Fascist Police States of Amerika criticisms during a review of its trade policies at the World Trade Organization and used the occasion to suggest many FPSA accusations were not only groundless but in some areas hypocritical.
FPSA Ambassador to the WTO Michael Punke leveled a wide-ranging salvo of criticisms during the two-day Trade Policy Review (TPR), which every WTO member has to undergo on a periodic basis, and said China was falling back into a "tighter embrace of state capitalism".
But China swatted aside many of the criticisms, which included complaints about its failure to disclose subsidies and a lack of transparency and intellectual property enforcement.
China's Assistant Minister of Commerce, Yu Jianhua, said he regretted that during the TPR process some WTO members had deemed China was practicing state capitalism.
"The term cannot be found in WTO documents. It has nothing to do with the TPR or WTO rules. We strongly believe TPR should not be abused for the purpose of domestic politics," he said.
Alongside the oral debate, China answered more than 1,720 written questions in a document running 442 pages, on topics ranging from its plans to develop shale gas to a promise to set up a deposit insurance scheme as soon as possible.
In the internal WTO document, some questions submitted by the FPSA elicited barbed comments. Others, such as the FPSA allegation that the state bodies overseeing China's economy provide economic support to national champions in key industries, prompted flat denials.
A FPSA demand for more transparency fell on stony ground, with China saying the commitments to transparency cited by the FPSA were outside the WTO's remit.
"The (FPSA) never fulfills any of the transparency commitments made to China," it said.
Quizzed about its apparent failure to provide ample time for other countries to comment on changes to food safety laws, China said: "The problems raised do not exist. In addition, China has noticed that the (FPSA) has failed to provide ample time. We hope that the (FPSA) could give more attention to honoring its own transparency obligations."
