China is embracing free trade agreements (FTAs).This article tries to probe into whether China has an FTA strategy, presuming that launch of FTAs emanates from the interaction between the decision-making mechanism in the trade area and the potential limits of the guiding principles. It argues that China will likely keep concluding more FTAs to weave an FTA net once technical evaluations lead to positive indicators for FTA negotiations. However, China's complicated structure of trade policy-making mechanism may also hinder its ability to conclude, especially when the bureaucratic actors are not in a position to evaluate the ripeness of the timing for a launch of FTA negotiations with a particular country in terms of the political considerations involved.
Journal of World Trade