Why is China a Reluctant Leader of the World Trade Organization?

ABSTRACT

China has drawn massive benefits via expanded trade since it acceded to the WTO in 2001. We might therefore reasonably expect it to have taken a more assertive lead in trying to rectify the travails in which the organisation finds itself mired, attendant with its rising power status, its active trade diplomacy elsewhere, the high levels of relative gains it has enjoyed since becoming a member, and its broader trade dependency. That China has not done so represents a puzzle, which is usually answered with reference to the international picture: i.e. that global trade has appeared to be holding up reasonably well throughout and beyond the global crisis, and, despite some inchoate protectionism, there generally exists a broad commitment to an open trading regime. Yet this only tells part of the story: China’s approach cannot simply be ‘read off’ from the structural context and there are, in fact, a series of interesting domestic explanations for why China has remained a ‘reluctant leader’ of the WTO too. On the basis of a series of interviews with Chinese experts, we offer a more complete account of these processes that better recognises patterns of agency, and how China navigates a contingent international order.

KEYWORDS:

• BRICS
• China
• WTO
• rising powers
• trade diplomacy

Acknowledgement

The authors would like to thank Wuhan University for generously funding Bishop’s period as visiting fellow in the winter of 2015/16 when much of the research for this project was undertaken. They would also like to thank the three special issue reviewers and co-editor Peg Murray-Evans for their extremely helpful suggestions on the initial submission; the participants in the ISA panel mentioned in the opening paper of the special issue, and, especially, Craig Murphy for his sterling work as discussant; and, finally, Liam Stanley whose perceptive insights played a key role in crystallising the central argument.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Matthew L. Bishop is Senior Lecturer in International Politics at the University of Sheffield, UK. Between 2009 and 2016 he was Lecturer, and then Senior Lecturer at the University of the West Indies. He is the author or editor of three books: The Political Economy of Caribbean Development (Palgrave, 2013); Democratisation: A Critical Introduction (Palgrave, 2014, co-authored with Jean Grugel) and Post-Colonial Trajectories in the Caribbean: The Three Guianas (Routledge, 2017, co-edited with Rosemarijn Hoefte and Peter Clegg). He has published in various journals, including Review of International Political Economy, Journal of Development Studies, Global Governance, The British Journal of Politics and International Relations, Review of International Studies and Third World Quarterly.

Zhang Xiaotong is Professor of the School of Political Science and Public Administration, Wuhan University, Vice Dean of Wuhan University Institute for International Studies. He obtained a PhD in Political Science at Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) in Belgium. He newly published Brussels Diary, a biography about his working experiences as a trade diplomat, and China’s Economic Diplomacy in the twenty-first Century, an edited volume on China’s economic diplomacy in the first ten years of the twenty-first Century. Zhang was a visiting scholar at SAIS, Johns Hopkins University in 2014-2015. His major research interests include trade policy, economic diplomacy, European studies, geopolitics, and US–China relations.

Notes

1 Confidential interviews were conducted by the authors in late 2015 in China with a number of trade policy experts and academics. We do not quote any of these respondents directly, however many of the unattributed ideas and explanations in the paper derive from insights offered by them, even though this is generally not noted explicitly in the text or in the endnotes.

2 The MOFCOM Debriefing on the WTO Hong Kong Ministerial, 13 January 2006, see: http://www.topcanchina.org/src/2006-01/2139.html, last accessed on 2 March 2016.

3 凤凰大视野 (Phoenix TV) , ‘中国入世十年纪事’ (In Retrospect of China’s Accession to the WTO 10 Years Afterwards) , 29 January 2014, available at : http://news.ifeng.com/history/zhongguoxiandaishi/special/zhurongjicongzheng/detail_2014_01/29/33460840_1.shtml, last accessed 2 March 2016

4 Mei Xinyu, ‘It is Difficult to Predict Whether the TTIP is bane or boon’ (Mei Ou Zi Mao Xie Ding Huo Fu Nan Ce), People’s Daily (Overseas Edition), 16 February 2013.

5 Wang Wei, ‘The Forecast of the Transatlantic Free Trade Area’ (Mei Ou Zi Mao Qu Qian Jing Zhan Wang), Wenweipo Hongkong, 22 May 2013.

6 Ding Chun, ‘The Potential Effects of the TTIP on Emerging Economies Should Not be Underestimated’ (Mei Ou Zi Mao Qu Tan Pan Dui Xin Xing Jing Ji Ti Qian Zai Ying Xiang Bu Rong Hu Shi), Wenhui, 25 February 2013.

7 Yicai.com, ‘Interview with Mr. Fan Gang, Director of National Economic Research Institute, China Reform Foundation’, http://www.yicai.com/news/2013/04/2599428.html

8 Li Chunding, ‘What’s the Intention of the Transatlantic Free Trade Area?’ (Mei Ou Zi Mao Qu Yi Yu He Zai?), Shanghai Zhengquan Bao, 2 April 2013.

9 He Weiwen, ‘China Should Give Early Response to the TTIP’ (Mei Ou Tan Zi Mao, Zhong Guo Zao Ying Dui), Huan Qiu, 26 February 2013.

10 Chen Jimin, ‘Will the ‘Old Dream’ of the US-EU Free Trade Area Come True’ (Mei Ou Zi Mao Qu Jiu Meng Neng Fou Cheng Zhen), Nan Fang Ri Bao (South Daily), 1 March 2013.

11 Wu Zhenglong, ‘The TTIP is Easier Said Than Done’ (Mei Ou Zi Mao Tan Pan Shuo Yi Xing Nan), Jie Fang Ri Bao (Jiefang Daily), 27 February 2013.

12 ‘Jing Ji Can Kao Bao’ (Economic Reference Newspaper), ‘Da Guo Yu Chong Gou Shi Jie Mao Yi Ge Ju’ (The Great Powers are Going to Rebuild the World Trade Pattern), 7 February 2013.

13 ‘Jing Ji Can Kao Bao’ (Economic Reference Newspaper), ‘Da Guo Yu Chong Gou Shi Jie Mao Yi Ge Ju’ (The Great Powers are Going to Rebuild the World Trade Pattern), 7 February 2013. Li Chunding, ‘What’s the Intention of the Transatlantic Free Trade Area?’ (Mei Ou Zi Mao Qu Yi Yu He Zai?), Shanghai Zhengquan Bao, 2 April 2013.

14 Guo Ji Shang Bao (International Business Daily), ‘China Must Stand Prepared in Response to the Challenges of the US-EU Trade Alliance’ (Ying Dui Mei Ou Mao Yi Lian Shou Tiao Zhan Zhong Guo Xu Zuo Liang Shou Zhun Bei), 27 February 2013.

15 Mei Xinyu, ‘It is Difficult to Predict Whether the TTIP is bane or boon’ (Mei Ou Zi Mao Xie Ding Huo Fu Nan Ce), People’s Daily (Overseas Edition), 16 February 2013. Here, the North-South trade refers to the trade conducted between developed and developing countries.

16 Ding Chun, ‘The Potential Effects of the TTIP on Emerging Economies Should Not be Underestimated’ (Mei Ou Zi Mao Qu Tan Pan Dui Xin Xing Jing Ji Ti Qian Zai Ying Xiang Bu Rong Hu Shi), Wenhui, 25 February 2013.

17 Wang Wei, ‘The Forecast of the Transatlantic Free Trade Area’ (Mei Ou Zi Mao Qu Qian Jing Zhan Wang), Wenweipo Hongkong, 22 May 2013.