Abstract

The Sino-US trade relationship has become one of the most important bilateral trade relationships in the world, however there are emerging more and more conflicts between them which may have negative impact on global trade. This paper reviews the US trade policy towards China and analyzes the reasons why these policies are changing over time. Based on related economic and political theories, this paper points out that there are political reasons, economic reasons and external factors that account for the changing of the US trade policies towards China. Furthermore, among these factors, the Sino-US political relationship laid the foundation of the bilateral trade relationship especially at an early stage, and the economic factor explains most of the bilateral trade after 2000. Meanwhile, the fluctuation of the bilateral trade could largely be explained by the struggle of the balance of the US domestic interest groups, and the balance of some external factors like international treaties.

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