Commentary To join or be excluded from the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) has suddenly become the major question for both Beijing and Taipei. Initially proposed by the U.S. Obama administration, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) was meant to be a highly sophisticated, up-to-date free trade agreement that, in addition to the United States, would include the following countries: Canada, Mexico, Peru, Chile, Australia, Singapore, Vietnam, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, and Brunei. The idea was to set very high free trade standards that would guide development of globalization in the Asia-Pacific region for the 21st century. In doing so, the initiators of the deal aimed to fence their markets and industries off to some extent from the impact of Beijing’s mercantilist industrial and trade policies. As it happened, the incoming Trump administration abandoned the negotiations in 2017, and the remaining countries concluded what they renamed the CPTPP among …