It exports more than any other nation and was the world's second-largest importer last year. But China, labelled a non-market economy, is still treated as an inferior member of the global trade family.
China has wanted to be recognised as a market economy since it decided to seek WTO membership in the mid-1980s. But in the final stage of negotiations to join the organisation, the United States, European Union, Japan and a few smaller economies teamed up to refuse that recognition.
China was then forced to make a concession, agreeing to be treated as a non-market economy for the first 15 years of its WTO membership. It finally joined the trade body in 2001.
The restrictions imposed on a 'non-market economy country' are based on the US Trade Act of 1974, designed to expand US participation in international trade and reduce trade disputes but whose general provisions cannot apply to communist countries.
'These countries operate a planned economy with public ownership, in which their governments seek to direct all economic activities, decide what needs to be manufactured, to whom it should be distributed and at what price and whose currency is not freely convertible', it states.
What irks Beijing most is that this provision applies exclusively to China, allowing other WTO members to impose restrictions on its exports. Party leaders, including Premier Wen Jiabao , have said that granting China market economy status would be a sign of the West's 'strategic trust', political sincerity, wisdom and vision to expand bilateral relations.