<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<p>The trajectory of US economic strength relative to China has driven a reassessment of the US’ rules of engagement on trade and investment. China is turning more authoritarian, more focused on self-sufficiency, challenging US dominance in international institutions, global markets, and critical technologies. It selectively honors the market-based rules of the international trade order. Structural features of the Chinese economy and its management blunt the effectiveness of international rules-based trade policy tools. The US, in response, is becoming more aggressive, with protective trade measures and proactive industrial policy. A new cold war is emerging, confounding the broad foundation of collaborative interdependence that vastly accelerating world economic growth for the past 35 years. This paper examines the nature of these shifts and the need for and scope of more constructive economic statecraft by both the US and China in order to build a workable, new rules-based framework for managing international competition and trade that is acceptable to both countries. It contributes a path toward more constructive long-term negotiation as an alternative to an economic cold war.</p>
</abstract>

The trajectory of US economic strength relative to China has driven a reassessment of the US’ rules of engagement on trade and investment. China is turning more authoritarian, more focused on self-sufficiency, challenging US dominance in international institutions, global markets, and critical technologies. It selectively honors the market-based rules of the international trade order. Structural features of the Chinese economy and its management blunt the effectiveness of international rules-based trade policy tools. The US, in response, is becoming more aggressive, with protective trade measures and proactive industrial policy. A new cold war is emerging, confounding the broad foundation of collaborative interdependence that vastly accelerating world economic growth for the past 35 years. This paper examines the nature of these shifts and the need for and scope of more constructive economic statecraft by both the US and China in order to build a workable, new rules-based framework for managing international competition and trade that is acceptable to both countries. It contributes a path toward more constructive long-term negotiation as an alternative to an economic cold war.

US-China Economic Statecraft: Turning Cold War into Negotiation

Professor, Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey and Georgetown University

Adjunct Senior Lecturer, The Fletcher School at Tufts University

Economic Diplomacy

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

{"article-title":"US-China Economic Statecraft: Turning Cold War into Negotiation"}

The trajectory of US economic strength relative to China has driven a reassessment of the US’ rules of engagement on trade and investment. China is turning...

US-China Economic Statecraft: Turning Cold War into Negotiation

Published Online: Sep 02, 2023

Page range: 16 - 28

Received: Apr 03, 2023

Accepted: May 18, 2023

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ecdip-2023-0004

Keywords
economic statecraft, diplomacy, trade, negotiation, geoeconomics, supply chains, international competition, economic warfare, trade war, global manufacturing

© 2023 Robert A. Rogowsky et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

US-China Economic Statecraft: Turning Cold War into Negotiation

Published Online: Sep 02, 2023

Page range: 16 - 28

Received: Apr 03, 2023

Accepted: May 18, 2023

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ecdip-2023-0004

Keywordseconomic statecraft, diplomacy, trade, negotiation, geoeconomics, supply chains, international competition, economic warfare, trade war, global manufacturing

© 2023 Robert A. Rogowsky et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Keywords
economic statecraft, diplomacy, trade, negotiation, geoeconomics, supply chains, international competition, economic warfare, trade war, global manufacturing