The accession of China to the WTO may take place in the near future. While much attention has been given to the effect this will have on international trade and the Chinese economy, less attention has been given to the effect on the WTO. China is a large, developing, transition economy that is likely to alter the WTO in a number of ways. The paper examines three aspects of China's accession and their implications for the WTO: (1) will China play by the rules?; (2) market socialism in the WTO's market-based system; and (3) the organisation's decision-making process.