US President Barack Obama's visit to Hiroshima carries significant symbolic meaning. His ongoing Asia trip offers a chance for the president to make a last-ditch effort to promote his Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) deal, touching a sensitive nerve among some Chinese people.

The TPP has long been considered one of Obama's greatest policy accomplishments. He claimed that the deal would let America, not China, lead the way on global trade.

The closely watched TPP, which aims to liberalize trade among 12 Asia Pacific countries, was signed earlier this year, but it still needs ratification from each member's lawmakers before it can go into effect. Given the complexity of American politics, especially uncertainty over the attitude of Obama's successor toward the agreement, it seems Obama may want to urge early ratification of the agreement during his Asia trip.

The US and Japan are core members of the TPP and relations between the two countries are at the heart of the deal, to some extent. Against this background, Obama will become the first incumbent US president to visit Hiroshima. Even though he is unlikely to apologize for the US dropping an atom bomb on the city during World War II, his landmark visit itself is a gesture.

It is clear the Obama administration is working on forging closer ties with Japan, and this may be needed to shore up support for the TPP as the deal may encounter opposition from Japan's farming lobby and certain other interest groups. It will mark another major milestone if the US can persuade Japanese lawmakers to support the agreement.

The US is doing everything it can to sell the TPP in the Asia-Pacific region at the same time as it is trying to speed up free trade talks with the EU over the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). While the World Trade Organization and its Doha Round of negotiations remain at a standstill, the US-led TPP and TTIP agreement will offer great opportunities for the US to write the rules for global trade if the two deals can eventually take effect. Obama's upcoming Japan visit may turn out to be a key step for the US to achieve its ambitions. It will not be an easy road, but the president's Hiroshima visit has attracted a lot of attention in China.

China is negotiating a trade deal, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), with 15 Asia-Pacific economies, under which the impact brought by the TPP is likely to be minimized. The possibility that China may speed up its process of fostering a high-standard global free trade network cannot be ruled out. With a bigger role being played by China in international trade as the largest trading country in the world, China is unlikely to allow just one country to write the future rules for global trade.

The author is a reporter with the Global Times. bizopinion@globaltimes.com.cn