“The rise of China” is a critical issue of the twenty-first century’s world politics. China is leading the new bipolar system in the post-Cold War period with the US. As the American dominance in East Asia became weaker, the old containment could not be fully implemented anymore. As a result, a new comprehensive strategic initiative covering the whole Pacific coastal States is being adopted. The outcome of this transformation is the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which was reached on October 5, 2015. This article aims to analyze the newly arisen TPP as a post-Cold War strategic alliance of East Asia. The TPP is a mega regional trade agreement. Its predictable legal setting is thus indispensable for the peaceful coordination of competition between both sides. The TPP could be a firm ground for the stability of this region, sharing the vision of cooperation, not confrontation in the future.

I. Introduction
 II. A Conventional Security Alliance:The Containment Policy
  A. Origin: Bar against the Soviet Union
  B. Containment in East Asia
  C. Post-Cold War Platform
 III. The New US Strategic Alliance Initiative:Trans-Pacific Partnership
  A. Background: New Bipolar System (G2)
  B. Building
  C. Strategic Implications
 IV. China’s Counter-Strategies againstthe New American Containment
  A. US vs. China
  B. One Belt, One Road Initiatives
  C. Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank
  D. Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific
  E. Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership
  F. Evaluation: It is China that Matters
 V. Conclusion: Legal and Strategic Implications of TPP

• Eric Yong Joong Lee(Dongguk University College of Law)