ABSTRACT
China’s bid to become signatory to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
(GATT, predecessor of WTO) started in July 1986 when China sought to replace
the Republic of China (Taiwan) in 1950. China argued that there was only one
China and that the Taiwanese seat rightly belonged to it. China sent several
delegations to the GATT – China Working Party between October 1987 and
February 1992 (see Lai, 2001). Taiwan applied for membership of the GATT
(WTO) in 1992, which may have, inter alia, prompted China to accelerate the
process of its own membership. China insisted all along that its own membership
must precede that of Taiwan (Lardy, 2002: 16).
