Research On East Asian Order Issues In Sino-US Relations

Entering the 21^st Century,especially after the 2008 financial crisis,the world has witnessed the shifting balance of power between the developed countries and the emerging countries,the institutional game at the global and regional levels as well as the conceptual differentiation of globalization and anti-globalization and all of these phenomena converge to fuel the world move towards the direction without historical precedent which has been described by Amitav Acharya.Unlike what happened after victory,the post-war liberal international order with American domination has been undergoing profound and fundamental transitions and reforms at the unconventionally historical turning point.Since the international landscape and order has changed dramatically,establishing and maintaining the international order at the global level may easily give rise to a wide range of expected tensions and conflicts which require more complex commitments compared with any previous period.Under this circumstance,a cluster of countries located in certain geographically specific space in the world with shared historical experience and communal identity are more likely to reach consensus on the order issue.For the reason that an increasing number of states show the desire to promote national core interests such as stability and development on a regional basis and regional order has gradually become independent of the position and interests of the United States.Notably,if measured by power resources no other major state has enjoyed such advantages,up until recently the effectiveness of U.S.leadership is on the decline.American liberal hegemony no longer appears to be an adequate framework to support the post-war international order.Namely,the authority of the United States,the institutions and rules of liberal internationalism,and U.S.hegemonic bargains with other states are increasingly contested,especially when it comes to the specific international and regional issues.Given the above analysis,despite the power perspective is necessary,it still fail to sufficiently describe the evolving international order.In the era of globalization,institutional construction and conceptual interaction also impose great influence on the current transition of international order which calls for comprehensive theoretical framework and analytical perspective.As the orientation of China-U.S.relations has stitched from‘relationship between the ordinary power and the superpower’to‘relationship between the rising power and the established power’,the issue of international order has become the crucial area in the game between the two countries.Even though the gap in power between the rising power China and the incumbent superpower U.S.is remarkable and will last for long,with the rapid increase in China’s economic capabilities,a dualistic East Asia regional order based on separate economic and economic centers is emerging which could take the relationship into the pathway of rivalry.In view of this,this research mainly focuses on the East Asian regional order in China-U.S.relations.Based on the theoretical analysis of regionalism and the outline of the ongoing East Asian regionalism,this research intends to identify the hypothesis that the issue of East Asian regional order has become the focus in the game between China and U.S.and the dynamics of the interaction whether is based on power or influence will profoundly affect East Asian even the world’s stability and prosperity.With the purpose of proving the research arguments,this article proceeds in four sections.Firstly,since the order issue area has experienced an era characterized by transition,a brief literature review and conceptual differentiation concerning international and regional order will be presented.After that will be a detailed discussion regarding the East Asian regional order in China-U.S.relations which will be the crucial area encouraging both competition and cooperation between two major powers with global impact.Based on that,the following two sections will introduce the concept of influence to highlight the importance of institutional construction and conceptual interaction and then adopt the“power+influence”analysis model,by analyzing how U.S.behave in the formation and revolution of East Asian regional order after the World War II to prove that the major country’s attitude and resources input on agenda setting,institution building,and norm shaping will greatly impact the construction and transition of regional order.Though the East Asia has overseen great power struggle in the history,there is still a possibility that great powers could cooperate in this region.The East Asian regional order is now the focus of competition and cooperation between China and U.S.East Asia could not only be the battlefield of competition but also the converging pot of common interests between the two great powers.At present,though persuing to build the“common community with share future”,the Silk Road Economic Belt and the21st-Century Maritime Silk Road（B&R）,Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank（AIIB）and a new type of regional order,China is increasingly playing an important role in ageda setting,institution building and norm shaping in East Asia.This dynamics provides a broad space for future cooperation for China and U.S.,and the bilateral ties of the two countries may be characterized by cooperation while not competition or conflict.