Summary

The early 21st century witnessed great changes in China, the United States and the overall international situation.  Such developments gave rise to new landscape in Sino-U.S. relations.  This book aims to provide a comprehensive study of the new face of bilateral relationship and explore deeply its structure, dynamics and trends.

Chapter One, A New Perspective for Sino-American Relations. After the Cold War, China’s rise, the development of globalization, the increase in China’s foreign interests, and its increase in international influence have created a completely new international environment for Sino-American relations. It is precisely under these circumstances that Sino-American relations have again gone through a process of internationalization. The internationalization at the structural level of relations between the two countries has worsened structural contradictions, yet internationalization on the functional dimension has brought momentum for cooperation and opened new space for development in Sino-American relations.  Faced with the expansion of Chinese influence in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, America’s response is complicated. Sino-American interactions in these areas have both positive and negative sides. The first section of this chapter examines the new process of re-internationalization of Sino-American relations from structural and functional perspectives and their influence on the bilateral relationship and looks forward to the developing trend in the internationalization of Sino-American relations. The second section explores America’s complicated reactions to China’s increasing influence in Asia, Africa and Latin America and analyzes their influence on Sino-American relations.

Chapter Two, The New Structure of Sino-American Economic and Trade Relations. At the beginning of the 21st century, Sino-American economic and trade relations have three main characteristics. First, economic and trade frictions between China and America have assumed a trend of moving up in a straight line and became an important source of dispute for the two countries. Second, with stable growth in China’s gross national power and with major differences in security and strategic interests between China and America as the background, there is a trend of ‘securitization’ in America’s economic and trade policy towards China. Consideration of security factors increasingly influences America’s trade and economic policy towards China. Third, economic interdependence is not only deepening, but also becoming increasingly symmetric. These new characteristics of Sino-American economic and trade relations have already and will continue to have a complicated effect on the entire bilateral relationship. The first section of this chapter analyzes the regularization of the economic and trade dispute and its reason for appearing, the second section investigates the development and trend of the securitization of America’s economic and trade policy towards China, the third section analyzes the changing relationship of interdependence, and the fourth section discusses the influence of the new situation in economic and trade ties on the entire bilateral relationship.

Chapter Three, New Trends in Sino-American Security Relations. At the beginning of the 21st century, Sino-American security relations had a new trend in development. The modernization of China’s national defense and increase in its military strength have given rise to America’s strategic concerns. America worries about China’s growing military strength, especially its strategic capability that may weaken America’s military superiority, worries about a challenge to its ability to dominate security affairs in East Asia and the Western Pacific, and also worries that mainland China’s advantage in the military power balance across the Taiwan Strait may cause Chinese leaders to tend towards a violent solution to the Taiwan issue. Therefore, how to deal with a China whose military strength is increasing has become a new important topic for America’s security and military strategies at the beginning of the 21st century. America’s way of coping with China’s development in military strength has caused new trends in the Sino-American security relationship and has produced, and will continue to produce, important impact on Sino-American relations. The first section of this chapter analyzes America’s focus, understanding, and judgment on China’s increasing military strength, the second section makes a detailed investigation into the reaction of the Bush administration to the modernization of the Chinese military, including preventing China from acquiring advanced weapons and technology from overseas and the use of dissuasion, deterrence and hedging strategies, and the third section analyzes the negative influence and problems that the Bush administration’s security policy towards China caused.

Chapter Four, The New Situation on the Taiwan Issue. At the beginning of the 21st century, there were new developments on the Taiwan issue. First was the ascension to power on the island by the Democratic and Progressive Party (DPP). After acquiring executive resources, Taiwanese separatist forces actively engaged in Taiwan independence activities, and the cross-strait relationship was tense. Second was America’s increasing involvement in Taiwan affairs, and the American factor exercised increasingly powerful influence on the trend of cross-strait policy of the Taiwan authorities and the evolution of the island’s political situation. Third was a new situation of interaction between China and America on the Taiwan issue, and both sides worked to restrict Taiwanese independence and maintained stability in the strait. The first section of this chapter explores the basic form of America’s influence on the cross-strait policy of the Taiwan authorities, analyzes the most important cases of America influencing the political evolution of the island, and looks towards developing trends of America’s involvement in Taiwan affairs. The second section analyzes the process of adjustments in the respective Taiwan policies of mainland China and America and investigates the new situation of interaction that has emerged between China and America on the Taiwan issue. The third section discusses the direction of America’s Taiwan policy.

Chapter Five, New Trends in Sino-American Interactions. Since entering the 21st century, interactions between China and America have seen new trends. On the objective side, the growing connections between Chinese and American interests and the increase in problems in the bilateral relationship necessitate the two countries from the summit level to the strategic and work level to intensify interactions and institutionalize each channel of interaction. On the subjective side, in order to promote cooperation between the two countries and the healthy development of the bilateral relationship, China and America are both trying to find a better means for managing the bilateral relationship. Interactions between China and America now have the special characteristics of multiplication of methods and institutionalization. New trends in Sino-American interactions help increase mutual understanding and trust between the two countries, encourage their cooperation on important issues, and push forward the use of constructive methods to deal with problems in the bilateral relationship. Conditions of rapidly growing economic and trade bonds between China and America created the Sino-American Strategic Economic Dialogue, which guarantees the development of bilateral economic and trade relations, and provides a new framework for coordination of the international economy. The first section of this chapter explores the unfolding of summit diplomacy between China and America and its influence on bilateral relations, and the second section investigates the development of dialogue mechanisms between China and America and undertakes a case study of the Sino-American Strategic Dialogue and Sino-American Strategic Economic Dialogue.

Chapter Six, The New Form of Sino-American Conflict. In the post Cold War era, security and diplomatic crises between China and America often occurred. Since the middle of the 1990s, Sino-American relations have experienced in less than ten years three serious crises, which were the March 1996 Taiwan Straits crisis, the 1999 bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Yugoslavia, and collision of an American spy plane and Chinese fighter in the South China Sea. These crises not only in a short period of time seriously damaged bilateral relationship, they also had negative influence on the long term development of relations between the two countries. Crises have already become a new form of conflict between China and America in the post Cold War era. The first section of this chapter investigates the experiences and lessons in the management of these three crises, the second section analyzes special characteristics in crisis management in China and America, and the third section envisions possible types and forms of crises that may appear in the future between China and America, and provides suggestions on how to avoid and manage them.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter One: A New Perspective on Sino-American Relations
Section One: The Re-internationalization of Sino-American Relations
Section Two: The Rise in China’s Global Influence and America’s Response
Section Three: Concluding Remarks

Chapter Two: The New Structure of Sino-American Economic and Trade Relations
Section One: The Regularization of Economic and Trade Disputes
Section Two: The Securitization of America’s Economic and Trade Policies Toward China
Section Three: Changing Interdependence
Section Four: The Influence of Economic and Trade Relations on the Entire Sino-American Relationship

Chapter Three: New Trends in Sino-American Security Relations
Section One: Focusing on the Rise of China’s Military Strength
Section Two: U.S. Responses to China’s Growing Military Capability
Section Three: Analysis and Summary

Chapter Four: The New Situation on the Taiwan Issue
Section One: America’s Involvement in and Influence on Taiwan Affairs
Section Two: The New Situation of Sino-American Interactions
Section Three: Trends in America’s Taiwan Policy

Chapter Five: New Trends in Sino-American Interactions
Section One: Sino-American Summit Diplomacy
Section Two: Sino-American Dialogue Mechanisms
Section Three: Concluding Remarks

Chapter Six: The New Form of Sino-American Conflict
Section One: Experiences and Lessons in Three Instances of Crisis Management
Section Two: Characteristics of Sino-American Crisis Management
Section Three: Avoiding and Managing Future Crises
Section Four:  Concluding Remarks

Conclusion

Bibliography