The Political Economy Of China's Free Trade Area Strategy

As the pushing effects of multilateral international trade system on the global trade liberalization are getting weaker and weaker, especially because of the failure of Doha Round, some countries turn to the bilateral or multilateral free trade area strategies, in theses international environments, China has started her own free trade area strategy. As an emerging great power whose free trade area strategy has been formulated and started comparatively late, China shows obviously "non-economic" characteristics when she draws up and carries out her free trade area strategy, therefore the traditional methods which were used to analyze the gains and losses of the free trade area participant countries only from the economic welfare point of view could not satisfy the demanding of the reality any more. This thesis analyzes China's free trade area strategy in a political economy way, meanwhile consulting the free trade area strategies of the United States and Japan, and then gives out several policy advices to improve and perfect China's free trade area strategy.As one of the national strategies, free trade area strategy could be used to serve for one country's multidimensional strategic intentions. This thesis studies the targets and the enforcing effects of China's free trade area strategy in three aspects. Firstly, the thesis analyzes the economic effects of China's free trade areas, and then introduces the gravity model to study the effects of free trade area on the bilateral international trade, in which the free trade area was used as a dummy variable. The outcome of the regressing is that the free trade areas have a positive connection with the bilateral international trade, but the economic effects of the free trade areas are getting down year after year, and the "non-economic" factors are occupying more and more important status in the choices of one country's free trade area partners. Secondly, the thesis studies the relationship between China's free trade area strategy and the international security. The study shows that China's free trade area strategy has a strong connection with China's oil security and the international anti-terrorism. Thirdly, the thesis analyzes the effects of free trade area strategy on China's great power peaceful rising strategy. The study concludes that China has sufficiently used the free trade area strategy to serve for China's peaceful rising strategy, especially has been creating favorable international circumstances for the enforcement of it. The innovation of this thesis firstly embodies the innovation of the perspectives of the study. This paper uses a political economy method to analyze free trade area strategy, it not only studies the economic effects of the free trade areas, but also brings the relative theories of the international relations into the research to analyze the important effects of free trade area on the international security and on one country's great power strategy. The innovation of this paper secondly embodies the innovation of the point of view. The author discovers that free trade area strategy could be used to satisfy one country's several different strategic intentions, for example, to enhance the oil security, to contribute to the international anti-terrorism and to practice the great power strategy and so on. Free trade area strategy could be used as effective measures to contribute to China's different national strategic intentions.