« Taiwan Journal of Political Science No.82Publish: 2019/12

The Struggle for APEC Leadership between the US and China: Taking FTAAP as an Example

Author: Hsiao-chuan Liao

Abstract / Chinese PDF Download

China has risen to become the second largest economy in the world and has continued to grow. This being the case, scholars are concerned with how China and the US will confirm the power transition that will happen between them. Specifically, scholars are interested in how a rising state proves itself as a leader in international areas while a dominant power continue to  occupy the leadership. The Power Transition Theory and Hegemonic War Theory propose that it’s possible for both dominant powers and potential powers to benefit from existing international institutions; hence, potential powers need not overthrow existing systems.

In the Asia-Pacific area, the non-binding and open APEC becomes one of the best areas for China and the US to compete in for the regional leadership of economic arrangements. Among APEC issues, the development of FTAAP is one of the best examples of Sino-US competition. The US initially supports the establishment of FTAAP but abandoned it and chose another way in the end. China initially delt with FTAAP negatively until it realized that it can utilize FTAAP to impede the US. Specifically, Sino-US competitions are revealed in the time-table, importance, realization pathways, and issue ranges of FTAAP. The struggle for leadership of FTAAP got heated in 2018 but then was put aside by Trump. To sum up, the competition of influence in the development of FTAAP is epitome of the struggle over the power of discourse among dominant powers and rising powers, and such competition will continue to occur until one of them cannot bear the cost of competition within the institutions.

Keywords:APEC、FTAAP、Hegemonic Transition、Power of Discourse、Sino-US Competition