The 2020 US Presidential election is now over. After listening to the essence of Mr. Biden’s inauguration speech, “America is Back!,” people around the world are cautiously expecting the revival of multilateralism. This research is to tackle a fundamental question of: “Is America Back to Multilateralism?,” by focusing on the US’s China trade policy under the Biden presidency. This essay consists of five parts including Introduction and Conclusion. Part two will review the development of postwar multilateralism which constructed the rulebased trade governance. Part three will analyze the challenge and crisis of contemporary multilateralism under former President Trump and the possibility of its resurrection under Biden administration. The author will review the origin and evolution of the US-China trade war. Part four will look into the possibility of reconstructing multilateral world for sustainable development. Part five will conclude the essay predicting the US’s China trade policy under the Biden administration.

When a State becomes the contracting parties to multiple FTAs concurrently, the State has to face serious challenges since all these different FTAs present different rules in certain segments of the agreements. All the participants are thus forced to walk a tightrope as one government is now supposed to play by many different playbooks. It is time to understand the real impact of the FTAs on the current trade regime, so that the States can take an informed decision when they devise their respective FTAs. Given the continued failure to complete the deals in the Doha Development Agenda, it is necessary that the States purport to negotiate and conclude bilateral or regional trade agreements with like-minded countries, and apply new rules of trade through such agreements. But the consequence of such regional experiments of fragmented rules should not be forgotten, in particular, concerning the long-term impact on the multilateralism. This article argues that the real impact of FTAs, particularly multilateral ones, does not lie in mere preferential tariff concessions, but rather gradual dismantling of multilateralism through incorporation of fragmented rules of trade. In this respect, China’s role is critical in devising and implementing FTAs in a way that can also help preserve the multilateralism.

This article aims to study the changes and patterns of China's multilateral diplomacy. Multilateralism has become an essential part of China’s international policy, with Beijing demonstrating much pragmatism in its attitude toward global multilateral institutions. China believes that multilateral diplomacy is a powerful instrument for coping with unipolarity and opposing hegemony. For Beijing, multilateralism will also help to provide new platforms for international cooperation. But there are constraints on China becoming a leading power in global multilateralism.