China should rethink its strategy toward whether to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) if countries who signed the free trade agreement earlier this year agree that they will renegotiate the deal. Although US President-elect Donald Trump has threatened to pull out of the deal on his first day in the White House, the TPP will maintain its vitality if China, a country that has overtaken the US to become the world's largest trading nation, seeks membership in the free trade agreement.

The Ministry of Commerce said on Thursday that China holds an open attitude toward regional trade agreements in accordance with WTO rules. The statement came after Reuters quoted Australian Trade Minister Steven Ciobo saying last month that "countries could push ahead with the TPP without the United States by amending the agreement and possibly adding new members."

China would consider joining the TPP if some standards in the chapters pertaining to state-owned enterprises and labor were to be amended. The deal has long been seen as a strategic tool of the US to contain China's rise so some of the existing standards aren't applicable to China's economy. It seems unlikely that Beijing would comply with all the rules in the TPP as the country didn't participate in drafting the rules. Whether China would join may depend on the sincerity in amending the agreement.

China will likely demonstrate its own sincerity by rolling out various domestic reforms to meet the high standards of the trade agreement in fields such as trade in goods and services to further open its market to TPP members. Beijing, in fact, is speeding up its process of pursuing a high-standard global free trade network.

It is possible for China to fill the vacuum left by the US if Trump withdraws from the TPP. A research report by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences suggested that China's economic presence and influence among TPP member countries may actually exceed that of the US in terms of trade scale. Officials and scholars should consider the possibility of gathering China and TPP members together to save the sinking agreement.

If China can replace the US in the TPP, Beijing will probably have greater influence than Washington does over regional Asia-Pacific economic affairs. However, China does not want to see Washington pursuing trade protectionism under the Trump administration. The US should not be selfish by simply calculating its own gains or losses in free trade deals. If Trump does want to "Make America Great Again," he has to let the US make a greater contribution in boosting the global economy, an effort that will also benefit the American economy.

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