World Trade Organization (WTO) Director-General Roberto Azevedo (Front) speaks at a press conference after a two-day meeting of the WTO's General Council in Geneva, Switzerland, on Dec. 10, 2019. Roberto Azevedo said here Tuesday that as of Wednesday, the Appellate Body would be unable to hear new appeals. (Photo by Peter Kenny/Xinhua)

The paralysis of the Appellate Body, the WTO's dispute settlement mechanism, is "the most severe blow to the multilateral trading system since its establishment," Zhang Xiangchen, China's ambassador to the WTO, said in a statement posted late on Tuesday Beijing time on the website of China's permanent mission to the organization.

"Unilateralism and protectionism are on the rise. It is therefore not surprising that someone attempts to use their might rather than WTO adjudications to change the trade polices of other members," the ambassador said.

Tencent-backed EV start-up NIO, known as China's Tesla, has fired 141 people at its North American headquarters in San Jose, techcrunch.com reported Wednesday, citing a filing with the Employment Development Department of California. It's the third round of layoffs NIO has made this year to its workforce in the US.

Apple's $1 billion data center in Guian New Area, Southwest China's Guizhou Province, which was announced in 2018, officially got electrified on Wednesday. The new data center, Asia's largest, is the iPhone maker's third data center after ones in the US and Europe. It's set to reduce latency and improve liability, thereby speeding up Apple's products and services offered in the Chinese mainland.