International Quarterly of Foreign Relations

International Quarterly of Foreign Relations

From the economic decoupling to The further Connections: An Analysis of the Future of America's Trade War with China

Document Type : Original Article

Author
Nowzar shafiee
Associate Professor, Department of International Relations, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran
10.22034/fr.2022.153251
Abstract
Today, the US-China trade war is one of the major challenges in international relations. Academic circles have analyzed this war from different perspective. This article also seeks to answer this question that what kind of fundamental economic response from China will the US trade war against China eventually lead to? The hypothesis of the article, which is examined in a descriptive-analytical way, is that China's involvement in the US trade war will be a function of China's perception of US goals. If the US trade war against China in Beijing is seen as the result of an inherent rivalry between the United States and China for hegemony, China may move toward economic decoupling from the United States. Inherent rivalry refers to the competition that occurs due to the nature of power between two great powers to gain a hegemonic position. But if in Beijing the US trade war against China is seen as the result of an institutional conflict in the political and economic system of China and the United States, China's response is likely to be in the form of economic reforms and a move toward "greater economic ties" with the United States. The article's findings show that China is regarding both considerations as part of a larger strategy, and from this perspective it doesn't matter to Beijing whether Biden is in power or Trump.
Keywords
Offensive Realism
The Further Links School
Economic decoupling School
Market Reform School
Sino-US strategic competition

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