Agreed. It plays right into China's hands because very, very few nations have the size to deal with China. Smaller countries need to band together to negotiate

Agreed. It plays right into China's hands because very, very few nations have the size to deal with China. Smaller countries need to band together to negotiate with China as a group. China's foreign policy has always favored bilateral deals rather than dealing with groups of countries because their scale favors them. I feel the same as you about the TPP. The implementation might not have been great but the idea was good. We need to band together with our smaller allies to negotiate effectively with China.