ABSTRACT
The United States and China, the two largest economies in the world, have been locked in a bitter trade battle since early 2018. The US has long accused China of unfair trade practices and intellectual property theft while China views this as the US’ efforts to curb its rise as a global economic power. This chapter seeks to conceptualize the current US–China trade tension by providing an alternative narrative with a focus on IPR standards. Section 2 will provide a thorough review of unilateral trade warfare conducted by the US to exert pressures on China. It will briefly discuss the legality of US approaches within the international legal framework. Section 3 will provide a thorough analysis of IPR chapters (Chapters 1 and 2) in the Phase One Agreement, with references to China’s aftermath changes to domestic law to achieve timely compliance. Section 4 will provide an overview of US continuous demands of a TRIPS-plus standard in its IPR-related trade policy making. Section 5 will further assess US–China IP bilateralism and its implications regarding transnational legal ordering and the multilateralist trade regime.
