A Study On The Evolution Of U.S. Trade Policy Towards China(2008-2018)

Since 2018,there have been severe and protracted trade frictions between China and the United States.Analyzing the U.S.trade policy towards China has become a realistic problem.To delve into this problem,this paper studies over a long time period by choosing from 2008 to 2018,searching the trends and laws of evolution on U.S.trade policy towards China.This study is based on a “Two levels-four factors” analytical framework: at the American domestic level,there're enterprises factor and the general public factor;at the international level,there're strategies towards China factor and international institutions factor.This paper demonstrates that,firstly,under the Obama administration,the enterprises and general public had brought about trade frictions between China and the U.S.at the level of domestic;while at the level of international,strategies towards China had promoted economic and trade cooperation with China,international institutions had not brought negative impact on China-U.S.economic and trade relations.Secondly,under the Trump administration,at the level of domestic,enterprises have promoted China-U.S.economic and trade cooperation while the general public brought protectionism for it;at the level of international,strategies towards China have led to trade policy friction and economic containment,sabotages in international institutions have produced adverse effects,too.The analysis of those two periods leads to further studies and trend summaries about evolution logic on the U.S.trade policy towards China.From 2008 to 2018,the overall evolution tendency of U.S.trade policy towards China is: to transform from economic considerations into politic considerations;from methodological frictions into strategic frictions;from single-level-dominant frictions into double-level-dominant frictions.After the trend summary,comes the regularity summary: the cause of evolution on U.S.trade policy towards China is a double-level influenced mixture,which aims at realizing a dynamic balance of domestic politics and international politics.This rule can be used to interpret the internal causes behind the apparent policy changes,and to get a better comprehension with a thorough grasp of the evolution on U.S.trade policy towards China.