China on Monday made its strongest response yet to US allegations that it unfairly subsidizes its renewable energy sector, AFP reported. Zhang Guobao, head of the National Energy Bureau, said the investigation into Chinese subsidies for green energy will also show how much support Washington gives its own domestic firms. "Chinese subsidies to new energy companies are very small," Zhang said. "But the United States had subsidized the new energy enterprises with US$4.6 billion in cash in the first nine months of 2010, including US$3 billion to wind power enterprises." Zhang said the US probe, provoked by a petition submitted by the United Steelworkers Union, was motivated by electoral politics. The petition accuses China of providing its domestic industries with more than US$216 billion in subsidies to green technology, more than twice what the US spent and nearly 50% of total government support for clean technology spent worldwide.
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