Professor Ming Du：China’s Industrial Policy and International Economic and Trade Rules

 

On the evening of November 24, 2025 (Beijing Time), Professor Ming Du from the School of Law, Durham University, UK, delivered the fifth lecture of the international series Cutting-edge Issues in China’s Foreign-related Rule of Law to teachers and students of the School of Foreign-related Rule of Law at Nanjing Normal University via Tencent Meeting.

 

 

Centered on “China’s Industrial Policy and International Economic and Trade Rules”, the lecture deeply analyzed rule competition amid the global resurgence of industrial policy, the practical characteristics of China’s industrial policy, and the underlying logic of international trade frictions.

At the beginning, Professor Du highlighted the clear trend of industrial policy revival worldwide: countries are increasingly using government guidance and financial support to develop strategic industries and seize development opportunities. Yet China’s industrial policy practices have repeatedly become the focus of international attention and criticism. To help the audience grasp the factual basis behind the disputes, Professor Du cited a wealth of authoritative data to demonstrate the prominent features of China’s industrial policy—large scale and complete system—laying a factual foundation for subsequent discussions.

 

In the core rule interpretation segment, Professor Du focused on the WTO Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures (SCM Agreement), explaining its core principles and applicable boundaries in accessible language. He then used the EU anti-subsidy investigation against Chinese electric vehicles as a typical case to dissect the SCM Agreement in detail. Professor Du further analyzed that in the investigation, the EU categorized some private Chinese financial institutions as “public bodies” and adopted surrogate standards such as land prices in Taiwan region and London market interest rates to calculate subsidy margins. This so-called “rule innovation” has sparked extensive international controversy.