Japan said it would have to determine if China meets the "extremely high standards" of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) after the world's second-biggest economy formally applied to join.
Commerce Minister Wang Wentao submitted China's application to join the free trade agreement in a letter to New Zealand's trade minister, Damien O'Connor, the Chinese ministry said in a statement late on Thursday.
The CPTPP was signed by 11 countries including Australia, Canada, Chile, Japan and New Zealand in 2018.
Before that, it was known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership and seen as an important economic counterweight to China's regional influence.
Japan, the CPTPP's chair this year, said it would consult with member countries to respond to China's request, but stopped short of signaling a timeline for doing so.
"Japan believes that it's necessary to determine whether China, which submitted a request to join the TPP-11, is ready to meet its extremely high standards," Japanese Economy Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura told reporters on Friday.
The TPP was central to former U.S. President Barack Obama's strategic pivot to Asia but his successor, Donald Trump, withdrew the United States from the pact in 2017.
Asked to comment on China's bid, a spokesperson for the U.S. State Department said it deferred to CPTPP, given that the United States was not a member, but added: "That said, we would expect that China’s non-market trade practices and China’s use of economic coercion against other countries would factor into CPTPP parties’ evaluation of China as a potential candidate for accession."
CPTPP accession would be a major boost for China following the signing of the 15-nation Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership free trade agreement last year.
Beijing has lobbied for its inclusion in the pact, including by highlighting that the Chinese and Australian economies have enormous potential for cooperation. However, relations between the two countries have soured.
In a new alliance dubbed AUKUS announced this week, the United States and Britain said they would provide Australia with the technology to deploy nuclear-powered submarines, a move seen as aimed at countering China's influence in the Pacific.
Zhao Lijian, China's foreign ministry spokesman, said on Friday that the application to join CPTPP was "completely unrelated" to AUKUS.
China was pushing for regional integration while AUKUS countries were "promoting war and destruction," he said at a briefing in Beijing.
Taiwan, which has also been angling to join the trade pact, expressed concern about China's decision to apply.
China claims Taiwan as its own territory and would not be pleased if Taipei was allowed to join the grouping before Beijing.
Japan's deputy finance minister suggested in a tweet on Friday that China's subsidies of state-owned firms and arbitrary application of the law were likely to make it hard for the country to join the trade pact.
"China ... is far removed from the free, fair and highly transparent world of TPP, chances that it can join are close to zero," State Minister of Finance Kenji Nakanishi . "This can be thought of as a move to prevent Taiwan from joining."
Britain in June began negotiations to enter the trade pact, while Thailand has also signaled interest in joining it.
Wang and O'Connor held a telephone conference to discuss the next steps following China's application, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said.
Luis Armando Albino was six years old in 1951 when he was abducted while playing at an Oakland, Calif., park. Now, more than seven decades later, Albino has been found thanks to help from an online ancestry test, old photos and newspaper clippings.
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An explosion in a coal mine in eastern Iran killed at least 33 workers and injured 17 others, officials said Sunday, marking one of the worst mining disasters in the country's history as others remained missing hours after the blast.
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At least two students at Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania have been suspended from the swim team after a report that a racial slur was scratched onto a student's body, officials said.
The prime minister's official itinerary says the interview will be shot during his trip to New York, where he is meeting with other world leaders ahead of the 78th gathering of the United Nations General Assembly.
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The owner of the shuttered Three Mile Island nuclear power plant said Friday that it plans to restart the reactor under a 20-year agreement that calls for tech giant Microsoft to buy the power to supply its data centers with carbon-free energy.
Lebanese authorities on Thursday banned walkie-talkies and pagers from being taken on flights from Beirut airport, the National News Agency reported, after thousands of such devices exploded during a deadly attack on Hezbollah this week.
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The search for a missing ancient 28-year-old chocolate donkey ended with a tragic discovery Wednesday.
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Â鶹´«Ã½ Montreal at Six for Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024 with anchor Matt Gilmour.
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The most popular hockey podcasters on the planet brought some major attention to the Forest City this weekend with the annual Chiclets Cup.
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The Amherstburg Uncommon Festival is living up to its name with the addition of a drone light show — a first for Essex County.
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A Victoria woman is now $1 million richer after winning a Maxmillions prize on a recent Lotto Max Draw.
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Despite the heavy rain, plenty of muscle turned up for United Way’s annual Pull the Bus fundraiser in Lethbridge Friday.
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The Lethbridge Hurricanes kicked off the 2024-25 season on a winning note Friday night, defeating the Edmonton Oil Kings 3-1 in a game played at VisitLethbridge.com Arena.
The Royal Canadian Mint has introduced its latest Gold Maple Leaf bullion coin – made entirely from gold sourced from a single mine in northern Ontario
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Newfoundland and Labrador's chief medical officer is monitoring the rise of whooping cough infections across the province as cases of the highly contagious disease continue to grow across Canada.
A 16-year-old biennial event aimed at fostering business in the country's eastern Arctic and northern regions has been cancelled indefinitely as a dispute unfolds between Inuit in Canada and a Labrador group claiming to share their heritage.
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