China-US relations: Joe Biden's Asia-Pacific trade framework to be handled with 'caution', Beijing advisers say | South China Morning Post

China should take an objective and cautious attitude towards US President Joe Biden's Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF), top-ranking former Chinese officials have said. The IPEF, which is not a traditional free-trade agreement but seeks to establish rules covering areas from data protection to carbon emissions, was launched in Tokyo last month. The US has said 13 Asia-Pacific nations, accounting for 40 per cent of the world's gross domestic product, had joined - though crucially not China. "Despite the bumpy China-US relationship and Biden's new IPEF initiative hoping to exclude China from mainstream Indo-Pacific collaborations, we shouldn't be too harsh and…