And for it to be successful, for reform to work, China must join the outside world. The Chinese have told us countless times they want the benefits of open markets. And after 14 years of negotiations, they do want to join WTO, and follow the rules. And we have to believe them, and engage China, and hope they make the right choices and take the path of democracy and free markets. And there are positive signs they are making the right choices.
China is in the process of changing their rules and laws.
They are retraining state bureaucrats and managers. And they are trying out democracy at the local level. But there are no guarantees that they will honor our trade deal. To be honest, we would be foolish to think there won't be problems as we go forward, since we have trade disputes with many of our closest trading partners. The deal with China includes compliance provisions, and there is a WTO mechanism for handling disputes.