China should join at an appropriate time the US-backed regional trade accord the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) as its broad aims were in line with the country's own economic reform agenda, a Communist Party newspaper said yesterday. China is not among the 12 Pacific Rim countries who this month agreed the trade pact, the most ambitious in a generation. The accord includes Australia and Japan among economies worth a combined US$28trillion. READ MORE: Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement doesn't look like such a great deal, except for big business in the US and Japan The trade minister has said that Beijing does not feel targeted by it, but will evaluate its probable impact. The Study Times , published by the Central Party School that trains rising officials, admitted some viewed the TPP as a "plot" to restrain Chinese ambitions. But the broad aims of the TPP, including reducing things such as administrative approvals and protecting the environment, were what China wanted to achieve too, it wrote. The country has been trying to shift to a more sustainable, ecologically sound, consumption-led economic growth model. The rules of the TPP and the direction of China's reforms and opening up are in line Study Times "The rules of the TPP and the direction of China's reforms and opening up are in line," the newspaper said. "China should keep paying close attention and at an appropriate time, in accordance with progress on domestic reform, join the TPP, while limiting the costs associated to the greatest degree." How state-owned industries might be affected by joining the TPP would need consideration, as the party had made clear their key role in the economy, it added. Beijing has been pushing its own trade pact, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, which comprises the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations club plus six others - China, India, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand. The TPP aims to cut trade barriers and set common standards from Vietnam to Canada. But it has also been pitched as a way to counter China's rising economic and political clout in the region.