China Eyes Closer Trade Ties With Neighbors

China vowed to nurture healthy competition with Southeast Asian neighbors and said its impending admission to the World Trade Organization will reap dividends for the entire region. Southeast Asia is nervous that China, its economy already growing briskly, will become an even fiercer competitor once it joins the WTO, which is likely to happen in the next few months. “There will be definitely competition. But there will definitely be no threat,” Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji told reporters on his arrival in Singapore for a three-day summit with other Asian leaders.