# China signs the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership

Date: 2020

## The fact

On 15 November 2020 China signed the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership at an ASEAN summit, joining fourteen other Asia-Pacific parties in a completed free-trade agreement.

## Context

Li Keqiang attended the leaders’ meeting as Premier. Xi is the political principal of the Party-state that authorised the signature. ASEAN wrote the chair’s process. India had walked away earlier. He did not sit as every customs officer.

Later RCEP entry-into-force on 1 January 2022 is a neighbouring later instrument if stored separately. CPTPP is a different treaty China had not joined.

The General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, concurrently President of the People’s Republic of China and Chairman of the Central Military Commission, can set the Politburo agenda, nominate the State Council leadership, and command the armed forces. He does not write UN General Assembly resolutions, OHCHR assessments, WHO emergency-use listings, or Hong Kong ordinances by himself.

## Evidence and sources

State Council of the PRC carries the official instrument or communique. Reuters records the same dated act independently.

## Significance

The path is [household purchasing power](/drivers/household-purchasing-power) and industrial policy: a completed mega-regional FTA is a dated trade-cost instrument, with lag into prices.

## What is established and what is not

Established: a 15 November 2020 Chinese signature of RCEP with fourteen other parties.

Not established: a unique later CPI coefficient from the signing ceremony, or that India later joined.

What would change the picture: a contradictory original with a different date or name, a later repeal, a court that vacated the instrument, or a measured series that can be argued, with lag and alternatives, as a consequence of this instrument rather than of later institutions.

The date is the date of this instrument, not a licence to back-date every later harm or benefit.

The Premier attended. ASEAN chaired. Customs still implements.. A later repeal, court stay, or successor order would be a different Fact with a different date. That pair identifies China signs the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, not a later speech about China signs the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership.

Co-authors and later implementers named in Context remain on the file. China signs the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership on 2020-11-15 is not a licence to treat every later State Council of the PRC communique as this same act. If a later repeal, stay, or successor decree exists, it needs its own date and its own row. This dossier refuses to average China signs the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership into a personality. The contribution described on this Person row is limited to The Party-state he leads authorised the signature. The Premier attended. ASEAN chaired. Customs still implements. That limit is the alternative to treating office-holding as authorship of every later series. The National People’s Congress, the State Council, provincial governments, the People’s Liberation Army, Hong Kong’s executive, and foreign counterparties share specific files. Allegation is not a completed judgment. An OHCHR assessment is not a criminal conviction. A white paper is not a census. A UN pledge is not a delivered emissions path.

## People

- Xi Jinping: https://factrail.ai/people/xi-jinping

## Drivers

- Industrial-Policy Activism: https://factrail.ai/drivers/industrial-policy-activism
- Household Purchasing Power: https://factrail.ai/drivers/household-purchasing-power

## Sources

- https://www.reuters.com/article/us-asean-summit-rcep-idUSKBN27V0KM
- https://english.www.gov.cn/premier/news/202011/15/content_WS5fb0d6e6c6d0f7257693fb5f.html

## Methodology

https://factrail.ai/methodology

Canonical: https://factrail.ai/facts/cn-rcep-signed-2020