earticle

영어

On January 20, 2018, the U.S. Department of Defense, for the first time in 10 years, announced the National Defense Strategy of the United States of America: Sharpening the American Military’s Competitive Edge. The main content of this report was basically in accordance with the National Security Strategy 2017 which Trump administration had published on December 18, 2017. Within the report, it made a clear line of judgement on threats as it stated “Inter-state strategic competition, not terrorism, is now the primary concern in U.S. national security. China is a strategic competitor using predatory economics to intimidate its neighbors while militarizing features in the South China Sea (the White House, 2017; U.S. Department of Defense, 2018).” These two reports proposed by the U.S. government revealed a clear preparation in case of a collision between the U.S. and China. And they also let us know that American perceptions of China fundamentally changed. At the same time, the U.S.-China trade friction finally broke out. As we all know, that is partly because U.S. President Trump has constantly pursued to “promote free, fair and reciprocal trade (the White House, 2018a)” after taking office. However, this paper argues that more fundamental reason lies on the long history of contradiction between the two countries due to the trade imbalance. And unlike some arguments which the U.S. has raised, China believes that trade imbalance between the U.S. and China results from various and complicated causes such as gradual devaluation of U.S. dollar, huge gap in saving rates between the U.S. and China. Therefore, we suggest that the Trump administration should take domestic economic reform measures to solve the trade deficit problem in the long run and should not blame other countries including China and its own allies for its own huge trade deficit. As the U.S. exerts bigger pressure on China in various ways and the strategic competition between the U.S. and China is more severe than before in every dimension, the U.S.-China relationship is entering a new inflection point. Then how should we view the intensified trade dispute between the U.S. and China since President Trump took office? How would the future of the U.S.-China relationship unfold? To answer these questions, this paper will consider them in several ways. First, it will look into achievements of China’s economic growth over the past 40 years after China’s reform and opening up. Second, it will trace the causes of the trade conflict between the U.S. and China. Third, it will consider the need for a new U.S.-China relationship and the challenges it faces in the process. In conclusion, we strongly believe that there is still a chance that China and the U.S. will be able to manage bilateral relations well and establish a new order, if the U.S. accepts the reality that China already became the world’s second largest economy and cooperates with China under the principle of “No conflict, no confrontation and peaceful co-existence” which China has constantly proposed for many years.