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From Economic Cooperation to Strategic Competition: Understanding the US-China Trade Disputes through the Transformed Relations

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Abstract

This article investigates the escalation of US-China trade disputes and the implications for Sino-US relations. Both structural realism and liberal institutionalism have failed to pay sufficient attention to the evolution of the US-China economic relationship, and this article strives to highlight this crucial issue. The article employs a historical perspective to examine the transformation of US-China economic relations in the twenty-first century. It argues that the US-China economic relationship is evolving from a symbiotic but asymmetric one between 2001 and 2008, toward an increasingly competitive one after the 2008 global financial crisis, especially in the Trump-Xi era. The changing dynamics of US-China economic relations, as well as the shifting perceptions of the top leadership of each country toward the other, create the impetus for the transformation of Sino-US relations. This article suggests that the recent trade tension is embedded in the growing strategic competition between the two countries.

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Notes

  1. There is a substantial body of literature on the history of Sino-US relations. See, for example, Warren I. Cohen [12], Henry Kissinger [39], David Shambaugh [54], Nancy Bernkopf Tucker [64], and He Kai [28]. However, they are largely focused on security issues, and less attention is paid to the changing bilateral economic relation.

  2. We would like to thank the reviewer for suggesting this contradiction.

  3. We would like to thank the reviewer for suggesting the gradual and incremental evolution of the US-China competitive economic relationship.

  4. We would like to thank the reviewer for suggesting this point.

  5. For those who view AIIB as a challenge to the IMF and World Bank, see for example Paola Subacchi [56]. For those who regard AIIB as supplementary to IMF and World Bank, see for example Ren Xiao [52]. For those who take an evolutionary perspective and provide more nuanced analysis, see for example Jeffrey D. Wilson [73] and Shahar Hameiri and Lee Jones [26].

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Funding

This research has been supported by Special Research Funds for Area Studies by Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China (grant number: 19GBQY068), Project Funds by Fujian Federation of Social Science Circles (grant number: FJ2019B011) and Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (grant number: 20820181018).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of International Relations and Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Xiamen University, 422 Siming South Road, Xiamen, Fujian, 361005, China

    Zhaohui Wang

  2. Department of Politics, Philosophy and Religion, Lancaster University, The Round House, Lancaster University, Lancaster, LA1 4YW, UK

    Jinghan Zeng

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Correspondence to Zhaohui Wang.

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Wang, Z., Zeng, J. From Economic Cooperation to Strategic Competition: Understanding the US-China Trade Disputes through the Transformed Relations. J OF CHIN POLIT SCI 25, 49–69 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11366-020-09652-0

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