China tells US rules must be agreed

HONOLULU, United States, Nov. 14 (Xinhua) -- China will definitely abide by the rules agreed on by the international community, but will "have to know whose rules we are talking about," a Chinese diplomat said on Sunday.

Pang Sen, deputy head of Department of International Organizations and Conferences of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, made the remarks in response to U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk's demand that "China play by the rules."

"If the rules are made by the international community through agreement and China is part of it, China will definitely abide by them," Pang told a press briefing of the Chinese delegation at the end of the APEC economic leaders' meeting in Honolulu.

"But if the rules are decided by one or several countries, China does not have the obligation to observe them," said Pang.

On the issues of targets on energy intensity reduction and the liberalization of environmental goods and services, Pang said it is quite understandable that member economies have different views or priority areas due to the diversity of the Asia-Pacific region and differences among member economies in their economic development stage, capacity to face the challenges and energy mix.