Comparative Study Of China's And The U.S. FTA Strategies

As the largest and second largest economies in the world,the respective international economic strategies of China and the USA have not only influenced the economic development of their own countries,but also impacted upon the economic growth of each other and the whole world.Therefore,it is significant both in the theory of the international political economy(IPE)and in the practice to carry out the comparative study of the China's and the U.S.FTA strategies,the sub-strategies of their international economic ones,because in theory,it will enrich the contemporary research of IPE,and in practice,it will also help us to learn from each other and to improve the formulation and implementation of China's international economic strategy.Nowadays,the multilateral trading negotiations hosted by the WTO,which was once one of the two tendencies of the economic globalization,have fallen in stalemate for almost 20 years,which has made people puzzled by its current situation,and anxious about its future.However,as the second tendency of the economic globalization,the regional economic integration and the free trade areas,one of its primary forms,have been prevalent and prosperous all the time.Since the FTA strategies of China and the USA have great externalities due to the first and the second largest scales of their economies,it is worthwhile for us to explore the answers to the following questions:What are the FTA strategies of China and the USA respectively?How did they begin and evolve?What are their characteristics?What has motivated them to form their own FTA strategies?And what are the effects of their respective FTA strategies?Based on the above five questions,the study employs the revelant theories from such disciplines as International Economics,International Politics,International Political Economy and Politcal Economy of International Trade Policy to construct a theoretical framework,and then explores the generations,developments and evolutions of China's and the U.S.FTA strategies as well as their inner mechanisms and logics in such three dimensions as economy,politics(diplomacy and security)and soft power by means of political and economic analysis,historical study,comparison,empirical study with data,case study as well as the Three-Dimensional and Multi-levelled Game Theory developed on the basis of Putnan's Two-levelled Game Theory and Russett-Starr's Level-of-Analysis.Generally speaking,the study finds that seemingly China's and the U.S.FTA strategies are motivated by their economic benefits,but as a matter of fact they are stimulated by such political purposes as diplomacy and security,and by the pursuit of soft power in ideology as well.Moreover,though they differ greatly in their ultimate goals,the difference between their general economic pursuits is only a matter of degree.The U.S.FTA strategy serves its national strategic goal to maintain its hegemony in the world,while China's FTA strategy is always development-oriented,attaching more importance to the comprehensive utilization of domestic and overseas markets and resources in order to maintain the domestic stability and development,which is consistent with the goal of the national strategy to preserve the core interests of China like sovereignty,security and development.The study also discovers that though the characteristics and effects of China's and the U.S.FTA on the basis of the 3-dimensional and multilevel game analysis of politics,economics,and soft power are always different due to their different motivations and developments,they do have some certain similarities as well,such as the pursuits of economic gains,influence in politics and soft power,etc.Concretely speaking,the U.S.FTA strategy is economically motivated by the desire to have access to more markets,attract more FDIs,create more employments,promote the development of the domestic economy and thus maintain the economic hegemony of the USA in the world.The exploration of the economic effects of the U.S.FTA strategy shows that the USA has achieved the above-mentioned goals to some degree by implementing its FTA strategy.The economic motivating factors of China's FTA strategy are almost the same as those of the USA except the last one,but the economic effects of China's FTA strategy proves to be more outstanding than those of the U.S.FTA strategy.Politically,the U.S.FTA strategy is inpired by the purposes of diplomacy,security,and the pursuit of the hegemony.While China's FTA strategy is also partly initiated by its pursuit of diplomacy and security,the ultimate political ambition of China's FTA strategy is to "build a new type of internatonal relations on the basis of mutual respect,equity and justice and win-win cooperation" and to"construct a shared community for mankind" since China "holds high the banner of peace,development,and win-win cooperation and stick to the diplomatic principles of maintaining the world peace and promoting common development",which is quite different from the political pursuit of the U.S.FTA strategies.In the aspect of the soft power,the U.S.FTA strategy is designed to spread the U.S.ideology,values and way of life,and the final goal of doing so is to keep the U.S.dominant rule-making power in internaional trade and economy so that it could keep its institutional hegemony in the world.While China's FTA stategy is also designed to promote its own soft power,China only intends to have a greater say in intertional rule-making process,to participate in the making of the international rules,and to contribute China's wisdom and strength continously to it since China follows the principle of achieving shared growth through discussion and collaboration in engaging in global governance and stands for democracy in international relations.Though the politcal effects and the soft power effects of China's and the U.S.FTA strategies couldn't be quantified,they could be verified and confirmed by means of the historical analysis and case studies,which show that both China and the USA have obtained their desired effects of their FTA strategies in the dimensions of politics and soft power as the results of the constant multi-levelled games domestically and internationally.The study proves that economic calculations are not only one of the goals of the political strategies,but also the bases,tactics,tools,means and platforms to achieve them by the comparative study of China's and the U.S.FTA strategies,which are the sub-strategies of the international economic strategies,and the study further enriches the theory of international political economy and its research methods.The FTA strategies of China and the USA have many points in common,and they have a lot of differences in nature,too.Under the new situation where the world is undergoing major developments,and the international political and economic structures are experiencing great transformation and adjustment,China ought to make full use of the unique and important roles of its FTA strategy,and actively develop it as a platform to build the friendly relations with other countries in the world,to parcipate in the making of the international rules,strive for the institutional power of the global economic governance,contain the U.S.Hegemonic ideology and acts,and ultimately achieve the great ambition of building a shared community for mankind.