Why have Chinese leaders placed so much importance on WTO membership? The most cited reason for pushing China to join is to advance the reform process. In many ways, WTO membership was the best way for China to support economic growth. The world economy has become much more complex and interdependent, and China's participation, based on international trade rules, was essential for China and the rest of the world. As a member of the WTO, China would have been able to participate in the formulation of rules governing international trade and investment. At the same time, China would be able to protect its trade interests using the existing WTO dispute settlement system. Chinese exporters will benefit from the fact that their trading partners will have to comply with WTO rules. This means, for example, that WTO members will not be able to adopt discriminatory measures against Chinese products. Another factor was the result of observing the technological revolution of the 1990s. Chinese leaders wanted China to participate in these developments, and this would have been much easier if China was seen as a satisfactory economic partner. Cooperation with the WTO would also include the protection of intellectual property (Prime, 2002). WTO accession is also expected to attract more foreign investment, some of which would bring desired new technology or help improve China's technological development capabilities. The fact that China joined the Information Technology Agreement, which phases out all tariffs on information technology products by 2005, lends credence to this as a factor supporting membership (Prime, 2002). China's exports increased substantially during the reform period, helping China earn foreign exchange out of necessity...... middle of paper...... problems. Finally, China wanted to ensure that Taiwan did not join first so that China could have a say in that economy's status in the organization (Prime 2002). Overall, China's participation in the WTO would promote the reform process, stimulate the expansion of foreign markets, invest in the Chinese economy, have a positive impact on the development of the service sector, so that China becomes a reference in the global trading community. Speaking at the WTO ministerial conference in Qatar, the head of the Chinese delegation Shi Guangsheng said that participation in the Chinese economy The multilateral trading system is currently the only possibility to derive maximum benefit from the developing world in the process of economic globalization. Works CitedPrime, P. (2002), “China and WTO: How, Why and What Now?”, Business Economics, Vol. .37, April. Retrieved from http://www.chinacenter.net/