Wang Hao, "From a Struggle for Institutions to an Economic  Contest: Domestic Politics and the Evolution of America's China  Policy(2009-2018),"

Journal of Contemporary Asia-Pacific Studies, No.1, 2019

【Abstract】America's China Policy has always been a product of the twin  logics of geopolitics and domestic politics. Following the end of the  Cold War, as the structure of the international system became more  unipolar, the importance of the geopolitical logic for the shaping of  America's China policy was drastically reduced, while domestic politics  became a much more critical driver of policy logic. As such, economics  replaced security as the core theme in U.S.-China relations. Starting  from the Obama administration, the U.S. and China entered into an era of  strategic competition, and the role of geopolitics in setting the  agenda for America’s China policy became much more prominent. Over the  medium to long term, it is ultimately becoming the key variable in  determining the nature of U.S.-China dynamics. While so, America’s China  policy and the core themes of strategic competition in the U.S.-China  relationship are still defined and re-defined periodically by America’s  domestic politics. For example, with the transition from Obama to Trump,  domestic political changes caused the core themes of U.S.-China  relations to evolve from a form of competition constrained by liberal  norms and manifested through multilateral institutions to one moored a  realist logic of cooperative pressure and bilateral economic  competition. As such, changes in America’s domestic politics might be  seen as prism through which one can observe the future of trends in  America’s China policy.

 【Keywords】Sino-U.S. Relations; Geopolitics; U.S. Domestic Politics; Strategic Competition; Trump Administration

 【About the Author】 Wang Hao, Assistant Professor at the Center for American Studies, Fudan University