After its accession to the WTO, China is required to conduct relevant reform of the current system in accordance with the international common practices.

These reforms are identical with the general goal of China's economic restructuring, they will help raise the government's management and control ability and strengthen enterprises ability to adapt themselves to international competition, they are therefore conducive to enhancing the competitiveness of China's economy, winning China initiative in the process of economic globalization featuring increasingly intense competition.

I. Economic globalization is becoming the mainstream of world economic development.

So-called economic globalization refers to the continuous increase in the scale and form of the transnational flow of commodities, services, production elements and information, improving the efficiency of the allocation of resources within the scope of the world market through international division of labor, thereby increasingly deepening the trend of the degree of interdependence between various economies. The concept of economic globalization did not emerge until the 1980s, however, the world market featuring a high degree of trade and investment liberalization had emerged in the late 19th century. But this process was interrupted by the great depression of the capitalist economy and the two world wars.

Since World War II, particularly since the past two decades, boosted by technological progress, the process of economic globalization has been gradually quickened and has become the mainstream of the world economic development. With the diminishing of international trade barriers, international commodity trade has grown rapidly, with the average rate of growth reaching 5.6 percent between 1980-95.The average annual growth rate of service trade, which had risen as a new force, reached 9.3 percent, both higher than the rate of world economic growth in the same period; international investment became increasingly active, transnational corporations carried out activities of worldwide production and operation, their total capital exports had hit US$3500 billion, becoming the mainstay of economic globalization; financial internationalization had undergone accelerated development, the volume of transactions on the international financial market had developed by leaps and bounds. The various international financial markets had formed transaction networks mutually connected in time and linked in price, the Internet has expanded rapidly, international information circulation is rapid and convenient, an "earth village" in the sense of information exchange is taking shape.

There exist profound reasons for the formation and development of economic globalization.

Firstly, economic globalization reflects the internal requirement of the development of productive forces. The rise in technological progress and the level of economic development objectively require the deepening of the division of labor and the expansion of the market scale. This requirement boosts the development of production from domestic regional division of labor to international division of labor and the extension of sales from the domestic market to the international market. At the same time, the enormous increase in the transnational investment, production and trading activities necessarily demands the rapid development of the international financial market, so as to guarantee the highly efficient operation of this kind of transnational economic activities.

Secondly, change in the post-war international economic relations has created conditions for economic globalization. The developed countries, relying on their strong international competitiveness and economic strength, spare no efforts to push trading and investment liberalization in the negotiation on international bilateral and multilateral economic relations. After World War II, promoted by the demonstration role of the newly industrialized economies, more and more developing countries have conducted trade, investment and financial liberalization reforms. Implementing a trade and investment liberalization policy is the developing countries' initiative choice, aiming to pursue their own interests. The practice of a trade and investment liberalization policy by more and more countries has created greater market space for the transnational flow of commodities, services and production elements.

Owing to the enormous differences in the developmental level of various countries around the world, it is impossible for the economic liberalization process to advance simultaneously. Because of this, countries and regions neighboring each other and having similar developmental level provide each other with trading and investment conveniences to promote economic integration, forming some regional economic organizations across the globe. Regional integration will also expedite the process of economic globalization from another aspect. Economic globalization can both bring huge benefits from international division of labor and contains risks. For example, the debt crisis erupted in Latin American countries in the 1980s and the Asian financial crisis broken out in 1997 brought disastrous consequences to the developing countries. Practice has proved that not all countries can be benefited from globalization.

The key to whether or not a country or region can pursue benefit and avoid harm in the process of economic globalization lies in an open strategy which can both give full play to comparative superiority and can prevent and control risk. Over the past 20 years, under the guidance of Deng Xiaoping Theory, China has implemented a correct strategy of opening to the outside world. As a result, the scale of China's international trade has expanded for about 16 times during that period. Active participation in international division of labor and cooperation has forcefully boosted the upgrading of the domestic industrial structure, created numerous new employment opportunities, raised the operational efficiency of the national economy, enhanced overall national strength, thus enabling China to play a still greater role in international economic and political affairs. Of course, along with a higher degree of opening, the fluctuation of the international market has exerted increasing impact on the operation of the domestic economy. For example, the major ups and downs of international oil prices, the radical change in the exchange rates of principal currencies and the Asian financial crisis erupted in 1997 have all exerted negative effect on China's economy. Therefore, as we enter the new century, we should accelerate reform, further open to the outside world to greet the new opportunities brought about by economic globalization and meet new challenges.

II. WTO suits and spurs development of economic globalization

The formation and development of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and its predecessor GATT have met the objective demand of post-war economic globalization. It was only till 1995 that the WTO replaced GATT and became an official international organization that promotes international trading liberalization by meeting the need of the development of economic globalization and undergoing seven-year Uruguay rounds of negotiations.

Because more and more countries and regions have been involved in the tide of economic globalization, the number of WTO member states has also increased from the original 23 GATT members to the present 135 members. China, Russia, and some former Soviet and East European countries have also applied to join this organization. It can be predicted that along with the further advance of the process of economic globalization, more and more new areas will be included into the scope of WTO negotiation, so this organization will become more important.

The multilateral trading system has not only met the demand for the development of economic globalization, the expansion of its role and the elevation of its status have effectively pushed forward the process of economic globalization.

Firstly, the WTO has provided international trade with universally accepted rules, the principles it follows, such as non-discrimination, more liberal and encouraging competition, have charted the orientation set for the development of global trade.

Whenever there was the re-emergence of trade protectionism, GATT would launch a new round of negotiations, this has not only contained the tendency of trade protectionism, but has also pushed trade liberalization to a new stage.

Secondly, enlargement of the WTO content has expanded the principle of liberalism to more areas.

Thirdly, the WTO mechanism for the solution of disputes has made unique contributions to the stability of the global economy.

This commentary, written by Wu Xin, focuses on the following three points:

In short, the standardization of the series of multilateral organizations and agreements of the WTO has a fairly strong irreversibility in promoting the historical trend of economic globalization.

However, the imperfection of the current international economic and trading rules remains to be further improved.

Because some developed countries adopt an egoist and pragmatic stand in their formulation of international economic rules, therefore, the fight for leading power in the formulation of globalization rules will be bitter. As a large developing country, China has, in its foreign economic relations, persistently adhered to the principle of equality and mutual benefit, initiated the establishment of a new international economic order. China's joining the WTO will make this world organization more complete.

III. Joining the WTO is China's strategic choice for merging itself with the mainstream of the world economy

After 20 years of high-speed development, China's economic strength has been notably enhanced, it has had the ability to participate in international division of labor and competition in many areas. However, due to the fact that China has long been excluded from getting into the world multilateral trade system, it has had to rely on bilateral consultations and agreements to coordinate its foreign economic ties, this abnormal state had subjected Chinese enterprises and products to many discriminatory and unfair treatments when they entered the international market.

Economic globalization brings opportunities to and imposes challenges on each country. China can safeguard its legal rights and interests in the process of its participation in economic globalization only when it actively takes part in the formulation of global trading rules.

After its projected WTO entry, China can enjoy the fruits gained by the multilateral trade system through long-term promotion of trading liberalization, but it must also undertake the duty of opening the market, this embodies the balance between rights and duties. After its accession to the WTO, China is required to conduct relevant reform of the current system in accordance with the international common practices. These reforms are identical with the general goal of China's economic restructuring, they will help raise the government's management and control ability and strengthen enterprises ability to adapt themselves to international competition, they are therefore conducive to enhancing the competitiveness of China's economy, winning China initiative in the process of economic globalization featuring increasingly intense competition.