Hostname: page-component-55f67697df-zh294 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-05-10T07:29:10.479Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Engaging China: The Political Economy and Geopolitical Approaches of the United States, Japan and the European Union

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 May 2025

Ming Wan
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

This paper examines US, Japanese and European political economy approaches to China and their effect on US-Japan and US-European Union (EU) relationships. Great powers with a greater security concern in dealing with another major country care more about power while those with less concern are preoccupied with calculations of wealth. China's rise and its actions have posed a far greater security challenge to the United States and Japan than to the EU and are driving the two countries closer together. The political economy game involving China reveals a dominant welfare motive among the advanced market economies. The ambition to transform China politically has diminished. China's integration into the global market makes a relative gains approach difficult to implement. Globalization simply limits the ability of a state to follow a politics-in-command approach in the absence of actual military conflict, which explains why the political economy approaches of the United States, Europe and Japan are not that different. China's own grand strategy to reach out to the world and outflank the US-Japan alliance has also contributed to a divergent European policy toward China, although there are severe limitations to Beijing's ability to drive a wedge between the United States and Europe.

Type
Research Article
Information
Asia-Pacific Journal , Volume 5 , Issue 11 , November 2007 , e11
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2007

References

* 1.Algieri, F. (2002) EU economic relations with China: an institutionalist perspective. China Quarterly 169, Pp. 64–32. - (March).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
* 2.Armacost, M. H. (2007) The mismatch between Northeast Asian change and American distractions. NBR Analysis 18: 1, Pp. 5–12.Google Scholar
* 3.Armacost, M. H. and Pyle, K. B. (2001) Japan and the engagement of China: challenges for US policy coordination. NBR Analysis 12: 5, Pp. 5–62.Google Scholar
* 4.Blustein, P. (2005, November 9) Deal on textiles may only delay China's dominance. Washington Post, p. A24.Google Scholar
* 5.Bureau of Economic Analysis of the US Department of Commerce (2007a) Trade gap widens in 2006.Google Scholar
* 6.Bureau of Economic Analysis of the US Department of Commerce (2007b) News.Google Scholar
* 7.China Ministry of Commerce (2007) Exports and imports by region in 2006. Retrieved 14 March 2007, from China Minsistry of Commerce website: .Google Scholar
* 8.Eurostat (2007) ‘Euro-indicators news release’.Google Scholar
* 9.Feng, Z. (2002) ‘Zouxiang dongya ziyou maoyiqu zhi lu’ [The path to the East Asian free trade area], Shijie jingji yu zhengzhi [World Economics and International Politics] 3, Pp. 21–26.Google Scholar
* 10.Fewsmith, F. (1999) China and the WTO: the politics behind the agreement. NBR Analysis 10: 5, Pp. 23–39.Google Scholar
* 11.Gowa, J. (1994) Allies, Adversaries, and International Trade. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
* 12.Grieco, J. M. (1990) Cooperation among Nations: Europe, America, and Non-tariff Barriers to Trade. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
* 13.Hu, Z. (2002) Dongya hezuo de xianzhuang yu weilai [The present and future of East Asian cooperation]. Guoji wenti yanjiu [Journal of International Studies] 1, Pp. 21–25.Google Scholar
* 14.International Monetary Fund [IMF] (2004) Direction of Trade Statistics Yearbook 2004. IMF, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
* 15.International Monetary Fund [IMF] (2006) World Economic Outlook Database. Retrived from IMF website: .Google Scholar
* 16.Japan Ministry of Finance (2007) ‘News release’. Retrieved March 14, 2007, from Ministry of Finance website.Google Scholar
* 17.Laprès, D. A. (2000) The EU-China WTO deal compared. China Business Review 27: 4, Pp. 8–14.Google Scholar
* 18.Laprès, D. A. (2001) EU deal paves the way for China to finally join WTO. European Report, 23 June, p. 507.Google Scholar
* 19.Liberman, P. (1996) Trading with the enemy: security and relative economic gains. International Security 21: 1, Pp. 147–175.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
* 20.Mastanduno, M. (1991) Do relative gains matter? America's response to Japanese industrial policy. International Security 16: 1, Pp. 73–113.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
* 21.Mearsheimer, J. J. (2001) The future of the American pacifier. Foreign Affairs 80: 5, Pp. 46–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
* 22.Mochizuki, M. M. (Krauss, E. S. and Pempel, T. J. eds.) (2004) Terms of engagement: the US-Japan alliance and the rise of China. Beyond Bilateralism: US-Japan Relations in the New Asia Pacific. Pp. 87–114. Stanford University Press, Stanford.Google Scholar
* 23.Potter, P. B. (2001) The legal implications of China's accession to the WTO. China Quarterly 167, Pp. 592–32. - (September).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
* 24.Shambaugh, D. (1996) China and Europe: 1949-1995. Contemporary China Institute, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, London.Google Scholar
* 25.Steinberg, R. H. and Stokes, B. (1999) Partners or Competitors? The Prospects for US-European Cooperation on Asian Trade. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.Google Scholar
* 36.Stockholm International Peace Research Institute [SIPRI] Military Expenditure Database. Retrieved from SIPRI website: (n.d.).Google Scholar
* 27.Stokes, B. (1999) Taming the dragon: integrating China into the global trading system. In Steinberg, R. H. and Stokes, B. (Eds.) Partners or Competitors? The Prospects for US-European Cooperation on Asian Trade (pp. 177–192). Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.Google ScholarPubMed
* 28.Studwell, J. (1996) ‘EU, US split on China's WTO bid.’ Journal of Commerce and Commercial Bulletin p. 1A.Google Scholar
* 29.Sugihara, D., Yokozawa, C., Nishiura, H., Ootsuka, K. and Yamaoka, T. (2002) Chomacrgoku no WTO kamei komacrshomacr keii to kameibunsho no kaisetsu [China's Accession to the WTO: The Process of Negotiations and an Explanation of the Accession Agreement] Somacrsomacrsha, Tokyo.Google Scholar
* 30.Tiefer, C. (2001) Sino 301: how Congress can effectively review relations with China after WTO accession. Cornell International Law Journal 34: 1, Pp. 55–93.Google Scholar
* 31.US Department of Defense. (2005) The Military Power of the People's Republic of China 2005 Washington, DC: Office of the Secretary of Defense.Google Scholar
* 32.US Department of Defense (2006) Quadrennial Defense Review Report. Washington, DC: Office of the Secretary of Defense.Google Scholar
* 33.Viner, J. (1948) Power versus plenty as objectives of foreign policy in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. World Politics 1: 1, Pp. 1–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
* 34.Wan, M. (2001) Human Rights in Chinese Foreign Relations: Defining and Defending National Interests. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
* 35.Wan, M. (2006) Sino-Japanese Relations: Interaction, Logic, and Transformation. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
* 36.Wang, Y. (1999) Why China went for WTO?. China Business Review 26: 4, Pp. 42–45.Google Scholar
* 37.Woo, W. T. (2001) Recent claims of China's economic exceptionalism - reflections inspired by WTO accession. China Economic Review 12: 2, Pp. 107–136.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
* 38.Yoshimatsu, H. (2002) Social demand, state capacity and globalization: Japan-China trade friction over safeguards. The Pacific Review 15: 3, Pp. 381–408.CrossRefGoogle Scholar