The International Symposium on the 20th Anniversary of China's WTO Accession and the Construction of the Rule of Law was held in Beijingon December 10-11, 2021. Thesymposium,as one of the "China Social Sciences Forum (2021)" series of activities, was jointly hosted by the Presidium of the Academic Division of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the Institute of International Law of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the WTO Law Research Committee of China Law Society, the Legal Affairs Department of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, the Secretariat of the International Commercial Dispute Prevention and Settlement Organization, and Shanghai University of International Business and Economics.

The opening ceremony was presided over by Professor Chen Guoping, Secretary of the Joint Party Committee of the Institute of Law and the Institute of International Lawof the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.Professor Gao Peiyong, member of theParty Leadership Group, Vice President, and Member of the Academic Divisionof Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and Mr.Wang Qijiang, Member of the Party Leadership Group and Vice Chairman of China Law Society, attendedand each delivered a speechat the opening ceremony; Mr. Lu Pengqi, Member of the Party Leadership Group and Vice President of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade,and Mr.Zhang Xiangchen,DeputyDirector-Generalof the World Trade Organization,each gave anonline opening speech; Mr. Jiang Bixin, Vice Chairman of the Constitution and Law Committee of the National People's Congress, Mr. Li Chenggang, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Chinese Delegation to the World Trade Organization, and Mr. Robert Wolf, Honorary Professor of Queen's University in Canada, each gave a keynote speech at the opening ceremony.

The symposium, held in a combined online and offline form, was attended by nearly 50 Chinese and foreign experts and scholars, including foreign experts and scholars from Germany, France, Switzerland, Canada, and Sweden and Chinese experts and scholars from such institutions as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Commerce, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and Tsinghua University. At the symposium, the participantscarried out discussions on various issues around such topic as "twenty years since China's accession to the WTO andthe legal guarantee forthe new pattern of all-round opening-up", "coordinated promotion of domestic rule of law and foreign-related rule of law", "China and WTO reform", "WTO reform and global economic governance", "the new pattern of all-round opening-up and strengthening of international law research", and "trade, environment and labor standards”, summarized China’s achievements in implementing WTO rules and promoting the development of economic globalization since its accession to the WTO, and exploredways of improving the multilateral trading system in the context of the intertwining of profound changes on a scale unseen in a century, and the raging Covid-19 pandemic.