Heroine or Strategist? China in the Multilateral Trading System and Its Confrontations with the United States

Abstract

This research will be framed within Donald Trump's first administration (2017–2021) and the early stage of his second term (2025).

Its main objective is to analyze China’s role within the multilateral trading system and its most relevant confrontations with the United States. As specific objectives, the study seeks to identify the diplomatic, legal, and economic strategies deployed by the Asian giant. Furthermore, it aims to examine the most significant trade disputes between China and the United States and to identify the role of other states in relation to China within the multilateral trading system.

It is undeniable that, in recent years, China has positioned itself as the principal antagonist of the United States, consolidating its status as a central actor in the international arena. Its discourse presents itself as a defender of multilateralism and the rules of the WTO, projecting an image of a state committed to preserving the global trade order.

The blockade of the WTO Appellate Body by the United States evidences an institutional crisis within the organization and a loss of influence of the multilateral system as a whole. This reveals a weakening of U.S. leadership, while China appears willing to sustain the system, strengthening its global leadership and generating tensions with the hegemon.

Undoubtedly, China promotes multilateralism while simultaneously instrumentalizing it to serve its own national interests, appealing to the rhetoric of mutual benefit among states and using soft power as its primary strategy under a “win-win” logic.