Telecom in China: Access to a growing world power

This article focuses on how long‐standing market impediments to fair market access for foreign companies might be removed with China's entry into the WTO. It highlights major benefits for the US industry from the recent US‐China Agreement of November 2000 and the current terms of China's WTO agreement. The article looks at the current political situation in Washington, DC, that will challenge the US's ability to experience the benefits of China's pending WTO accession fully. Further, the role of China in American politics is examined, along with the impact of the WTO Seattle debacle of December 2000 and of human rights lobbying in a year of US presidential elections. Finally, the article explores how telecommunications will lead China to become a regional and world force as a consequence of the country's determination to modernise and its focus on high‐technology growth and development.