In the past decade, the European Union and the United States have pushed aggressively for the development of bilateral and regional trade agreements. What are the strengths and weaknesses of these agreements? Are China's bilateral and regional trade agreements different from these agreements? What are China's goals and negotiation strategies? What will happen if China's bilateral approach clashes with that of the European Union or the United States? This Article begins by examining China's growing engagement with the less developed world, in particular Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia. It analyzes the goals, strengths and weaknesses of EU economic partnership agreements and U.S. free trade agreements. It also examines the goals of China's bilateral and plurilateral trade agreements. The article then explores how China's negotiation strategies differ from their EU and U.S. counterparts. It concludes by highlighting three future battles that the accelerated development of China's agreements may precipitate.
