Sun Zhenyu, China's ambassador to the WTO, has ended his nine-year tenure as China's first envoy to the WTO and returned to Beijing on December 21.

Sun, 64, graduated as an English major from the Beijing Foreign Studies University in 1970 and devoted himself to foreign trade regulation in government departments. Before being appointed the ambassador to the WTO, Sun was vice minister of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation, the predecessor of today's Ministry of Commerce.

In the past nine years, China's delegation to the WTO has made great efforts in tackling trade friction, solving trade disputes, fulfilling China's original promises when first entering the organization and promoting the Doha Round, in which Sun has made important contributions.

"China has gradually adapted to WTO rules since entering the organization in 2001. After learning and using WTO rules, China is now gradually involved in the rule-setting process. We have already done what we could do over the past nine years. The next stage might be more difficult, considering the issues involved, because the reform is related to the redistribution of wealth. Reform and opening up in China should continue, but future impetus will come from inside rather than from outside," he said.