What if the U.S. doesn't give China the status of most favored nation in 1998? Would they have liberalized more? Would they have been as successful in gaining economic power?
Most Favored Nation Status just means that China gets treated like every other member of the World Trade Organization, it sounds like an exclusive thing but it's not. MFN means that if the US, for example, sets a 40% steel tariff on all WTO members, except for a 10% tariff against the UK because we really like them, US trade policy has to apply the rules for the UK to all other WTO members.
A uniform tariff policy is designed to reduce the possibility of a trade war between two specific countries and its supposed to encourage trade liberalization because countries can't benefit from playing favorites when they set tariff rates.
