China's Trade Policy Changes: Arguments and Criticisms

Foreign trade is one of the main drivers of China’s spectacular rise. As it has become a determining factor in world trade, its composition, competitiveness, characteristics, and methods have become important for the whole world. This article provides a political examination of the Chinese foreign trade architecture, considers the criticisms related to it, and the Chinese rationale. It concludes that China – according to its intentions – has tried to fit into the institutional order of world trade, but, at the same time, has brought in its peculiarities that sometimes have stretched this order apart. The main determinant of this is China's state- centredness and bureaucracy.