The United States And Britain In The Economic Sanctions On China On The Differences

For containing communism, western countries, under U.S. leadership, set up a multilateral trade control network, which evolved into COCOM (Coordinating Committee for Multilateral Export Controls). Areas under the control of the Chinese Communist Party in the Liberation War and the subsequent establishment of the new China were subject to the U.S. trade controls. For a long period of time, economic sanctions against China were even harsher than those on the Soviet Union and Eastern European countries.Economic sanctions works best if fully enforced. U.S. government had great expectation from economic sanctions. However, to U.S disappointment, disputes arose, especially those differences from UK. Britain strongly opposed the U.S. trade control on China. Disputes over economic sanctions on China sustained until the sanctions dismantled. Washington's incessant efforts to make Britain toe the American line in this arena ultimately strained relations with its closest allies and proved particularly damaging to the Anglo-American special relationship.The Anglo-American disputes over economic sanctions against China could be explained in political and economic terms, as well as philosophical differences. For Washington, the economic sanctions aimed to put a'wedge'into Chinese communist and Soviet. It also expected the collapse of Chinese communist government under the huge pressure brought by economic sanctions. So U.S. policymakers tried to win support from their British counterparts. However, Britain hoped to express its own voices on international arena and rebuild its past glories as a dominant power on world affairs. London also needed to maintain trade relations with China in order to accelerate its economic recovery in the postwar period. Trade contact with mainland china was also important for Hong Kong, UK's past vulnerable colony. Furthermore, the Anglo-American disputes lied in the fact that they hold different views about the functions of trade and different philosophical tenets at large.