The US is halting the "natural expansion" of a fledgling Asia-Pacific free trade deal with hostile rhetoric towards China, Beijing's state-run Global Times said in an editorial Saturday.

The piece slammed remarks by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last week on human rights in China and her description of the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership (TPP) as an agreement of values as well as trade.

The editorial, headlined "US rule of TPP halts natural expansion", came a day after Japan announced it would join TPP talks, and shortly after a Chinese official at an Asia-Pacific summit said Beijing would "consider" joining the pact if invited.

"US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton kickstarted a publicity campaign Thursday by uWashington to push for a free trade deal (TPP), while pressing China on human rights," the editorial in the Global Times said.

"Clinton's remarks specifically fuelled speculation about Washington's attempt to contain China through (the) TPP... If the US is sincerely committed to the success of its TPP initiative, Clinton should not have adopted this tone," it said.

The piece argued that the TPP would be worth little without China.

"China should feel comfortable with the fact that any Asian cooperation with the absence of Beijing will not have much heft. China never lacks channels for conducting cooperation with its regional counterparts," it said.

The Chinese edition of the Global Times alluded to Japan's announcement, saying Beijing "has no reason to oppose the expansion of the TPP".

Clinton said Thursday that the United States was "alarmed" by incidents such as recent self-immolations by Tibetans and the house arrest of lawyer Chen Guangcheng, and called "on China to embrace a different path".

She added that the TPP was a new type of trade deal that was "not merely a matter of economics" but also an agreement of values such as openness, freedom and fairness.

Signed in 2005, the TPP was originally an obscure arrangement between just four members -- Brunei, Chile, New Zealand and Singapore.

But it got a shot in the arm in 2008 after the United States announced it wanted to join the grouping and invited a few economies to follow suit.

With Japan's entry, 10 nations are now in talks for an expanded TPP. The others are Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States and Vietnam.

"China's participation in the pact is possible," said the Global Times, adding that "China remains open to international cooperation but it would never seek engagement with blocs that do not respect its interests."

At the summit in Hawaii, a senior Chinese official carefully declined to take issue with the pact on Friday and said that it complemented other global efforts on trade.

"Until now we have not yet received any invitation from any TPP economy. If one day we receive such an invitation, we will seriously study the invitation," China's assistant commerce minister Yu Jianhua told reporters.

US shrugs off China's complaints on APEC
Aboard Air Force One (AFP) Nov 11, 2011 - The United States Friday shrugged off China's complaints that its goals for the APEC summit were too ambitious, saying it was acting to benefit the entire Asia-Pacific region.

Ahead of the weekend Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting in Hawaii, Beijing had questioned whether developing states could meet US aspirations, for example on tariffs on green products and trade expansion.

Asked about China's complaints, a key aide to US President Barack Obama said that Washington would not hesitate to push for what it believed were important components of a prosperous Asia-Pacific region.

"The measures that we are pursuing are in our interests, but we also think they are in the interests of the region's economy," deputy national security advisor Ben Rhodes said on Air Force One after Obama set off for Hawaii.

"Throughout the APEC agenda.... we are focused on a range of areas, innovation, regulatory convergence, green growth, that we think are in the interests of all the nations that are there at the table."

"We are going to continue to work on behalf of a region that has economies adhering to rules of the road and engaging in the type of trade that can be beneficial to all nations," Rhodes said, a day before Obama meets Chinese President Hu Jintao on the summit eve.

China said on Monday that US goals for APEC were "too ambitious" and beyond the reach of developing economies in the fast-growing region.

Some APEC members had already "expressed their difficulties and concerns" at US targets for lower tariffs on environmental products and for reductions in energy intensity, assistant foreign minister Wu Hailong said.

The United States wants duties levied on green goods capped at five percent and member countries to reduce their energy intensity -- the amount of energy consumed per unit of GDP -- to 50 percent of 2005 levels by 2035, Wu said.

"It seems that the current goals put out by the US side are too ambitious and beyond the reach of developing economies," he told a media briefing ahead of the forum in Honolulu on November 12-13.

"We hope that all parties will demonstrate flexibility -- they need to pay attention to the different development stages of members of APEC, especially developing countries."

Washington also hopes to use its APEC chairmanship to set the terms of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal that could breathe life into moribund global commerce talks.

But Chinese assistant commerce minister Yu Jianhua cast doubt on the ability of some APEC members to reach the "high benchmarks" set for the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) grouping.

"Whether or not all those members will reach that very high benchmark, we will still have to wait and see," Yu said, adding that China had not been invited to join the partnership.

The TPP is an Asia-Pacific regional trade agreement being negotiated among the United States and eight other partners -- Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.