The Impact of the Aggravation of the US-China Contradictions on the Eurasian Economic Integration

Abstract

The article discusses a number of issues related to the concept of “international economic integration” (IEI), the real status of IEI in Eurasia and the Asia-Pacific, directions of the US-Chinese rivalry and mainly – trade frictions between the two countries. The Reasons for China's entry into the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and the probable impact of RCEP on the international positions of the PRC and the United States in the near future are also analyzed. The authors note that the conflict between the US and China is capable of exerting both an inhibitory and a stimulating effect on the integration processes in Eurasia, and throughout the AP as well. The positive impact of the conflict for the PRC is in the fact that the Celestial Empire has been impelled to seriously engage in its own technological independence. The American policy of excommunicating China from high knowledge, on the one hand, and deliberate separation of the PRC from the American technological “field" on the other, ultimately contribute to China’s emergence as a self-sufficient world technological center. China is no longer satisfied with the function of a “world factory”. The great power has set its sights on a new role. The negative impact of the conflict on both the PRC and the United States is in the fact that it sharply limits trade benefits of the parties, reduces volume of mutual investment and the exchange of knowledge and personnel as well. The parties, having embarked on the path of mutual technological isolation, can inadvertently narrow down global technological competition, which will slow down overall technological progress (but will “spur” economic espionage). In addition, further exacerbation of the Sino-US trade conflict may lead to capital flight from Central Asian and other “emerging” markets involved in the chains of Sino-US economic relations. As a result, regional and even global economic development can suffer and, consequently, international economic integration can suffer as well. In general, the conflict and the US withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) have prompted China to take control of the integration process in the AP (by joining the RCEP, in particular).

Keywords

• china
• usa
• russian
• eurasian economic union (eaeu)
• rcep
• iei
• trade and economic conflict
• international integration