China Formally Applies to Join Asian Trade Deal Trump Abandoned

Diplomatic Disputes

The application highlights Asia's increasingly delicate geopolitical scenario, in which China is the dominating economy and many people's main trading partner, yet competition with the United States is becoming increasingly fierce. CPTPP members Australia, Singapore, New Zealand, and Japan are close allies of the United States, but they are also members of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, which was successfully concluded last year.

Due to China's expanded military presence around islands that both countries claim as their own, Chinese threats to Taiwan, and other causes, military and diplomatic tensions between China and Japan, the largest economy in the CPTPP, have been rising.

“Japan must look carefully at whether it is ready to reach the high level of TPP,” Foreign Minister Motegi Toshimitsu said in Tokyo on Friday in response to China's application. “We will consult with other member countries and deal with this, taking strategic factors into account,” he added, adding that the United Kingdom's proposal will be handled first.

Taiwan had indicated interest in joining the CPTPP and had been in contact with members of the organization, with several Japanese ruling party politicians backing Taiwan's membership last month. The Chinese application, on the other hand, will make things more difficult because Beijing opposes Taiwan joining any international organization or group.

Taiwan's Minister of Economic Affairs Wang Mei-hua told reporters in Taipei on Friday that the island will continue to talk to members and will apply when there is consensus. According to Wang, China's quick proposal stunned CPTPP members, who expressed doubts about China's ability to achieve the deal's high requirements.