NSC’s Campbell: China’s bid to join CPTPP ‘deadly serious’

China’s application to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership is “deadly serious,” Kurt Campbell, coordinator for Indo-Pacific affairs at the National Security Council, said on Friday. China applied to join the 11-member trade pact in September. In October, it submitted a bid to join the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement signed by Chile, New Zealand and Singapore. With those applications, Beijing has been “assertively” responding to the Biden administration’s “strategic movements” like its Build Back Better investments, vaccine...