In an effort to make sense of the trade war between the USA and China, the paper draws the insights from the two international relations theories – . hegemonic stability theory and power transition theory. | The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at ITPD 3 1 A real driver of US China trade conflict The Sino US competition for global hegemony 30 and its implications for the future Received 24 November 2018 Min-hyung Kim Accepted 24 November 2018 Department of Political Science and International Relations Kyung Hee University Seoul South Korea Abstract Purpose According to the conventional wisdom trade is not a zero-sum game but a positive-sum game. By allowing countries to focus on producing the goods that they can produce relatively efficiently free trade is largely beneficial for everyone involved. Then why are the world s two largest economies . the USA and China currently engaged in a trade war which is likely to hurt their own economies What is the driving force for the trade war between the two economic giants The purpose of this paper is to offer an explanation of the underlying cause of the US China trade war. Design methodology approach In an effort to make sense of the trade war between the USA and China the paper draws the insights from the two international relations theories . hegemonic stability theory and power transition theory. Findings As China continues to threaten US hegemony in the world in general and East Asia in particular the Sino US competition for hegemony will intensify over time. As a result the trade war between the two countries may persist longer than many anticipate. Further even if the trade war between the two superpowers ends soon a similar type of conflict is likely to occur later as long as the Sino US hegemonic rivalry continues. Originality value The central thesis of this paper is that US fear about its declining hegemony and China s rapid rise as a challenger of US hegemony is driving a US-launched trade war with China. Since the underlying cause of the trade war between the world s two largest economies is political . the Sino US .
