Sino American Relations

This book brings together leading China specialists to offer a retrospective on relations between the United States and China over the last half-century and consider what might be next. The contributors include academics, leaders of China-related nongovernmental organizations, and former diplomats and government officials.

President Nixon's historic trip to China in February 1972 marked the beginning of a new era in Sino-American relations. For the first time since 1949, the two countries established high-level official contacts and transformed their relationship from confrontation to collaboration. Over the subsequent twenty years, however, U.S.-China relations have experienced repeated cycles of progress, stalemate, and crisis, with the events in Tiananmen Square in June 1989 the most recent and disruptive example. Paradoxically, although relations between the two countries are vastly more extensive today than they were twenty years ago, they remain highly fragile. In this eagerly awaited book, China expert Harry Harding offers the first comprehensive look at Sino-American relations from 1972 to the present. He traces the evolution of U.S.-China relations, and assesses American policy toward Peking in the post- Tiananmen era. Harding analyzes the changing contexts for the Sino-American relationship, particularly the rapidly evolving international environment, changes in American economic and political life, and the dramatic domestic developments in both China and Taiwan. He discusses the principal substantive issues in U.S.-China relations, including the way in which the two countries have addressed their differences over Taiwan and human rights, and how they have approached the blend of common and competitive interests in their economic and strategic relationships. He also addresses the shifting political base for Sino-American relations within each country, including the development of each society's perceptions of the other, and the emergence and dissolution of rival political coalitions supporting and opposing the relationship. Harding concludes that a return to the Sino-American strategic alignment of the 1970s, or even to the economic partnership of the 1980s, is less likely in the 1990s than continued tension or even confrontation over such issues as

Warren I. Cohen begins with the mercantile interests of the newly independent American colonies and follows through to the Tianenmen Square massacre and the policy of George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton.

Gauging another state's trustworthiness -- A weak form of trust reflecting external compulsion -- A semi-strong form of trust motivated by reputational considerations -- A strong form of trust grounded in appropriateness and unthinkability

This comprehensive and balanced assessment of the historical and contemporary determinants of Sino-American relations, now updated through 2017, explains the conflicted engagement between the two governments. Offering a welcome richness of discussion and analysis, Sutter explores the twists and turns of the relationship over the past 200 years.

Since 1784, when the American ship Empress of China arrived in Guangzhou, Chinese-American relations have experienced advances and setbacks. As the Chinese economy rapidly expands, China assumes a more dominant position in world politics, and continued fruitful relations with the United States are a primary concern for both nations in the twenty-first century. This encyclopedia contains more than 400 descriptive entries of important events, issues, personalities, controversies, treaties, agreements, organizations and alliances in the history of Sino-American relations, from Chinese and American perspectives. Also included are maps, a chronology, a list of acronyms, and three appendices (American chiefs on missions to China, Chinese chiefs on missions to the United States, and the correspondence of Wade-Giles to Pinyin).

A second edition of this book is now available. This comprehensive and lucid assessment of the key historical and contemporary determinants of Sino-American relations explains the conflicted engagement between the two governments. Offering a welcome richness of discussion and analysis, distinguished analyst Robert G. Sutter explores the twists and turns of the relationship over the past two hundred years. The mixed historical record convincingly shows that strong differences and mutual suspicions persist, only partly overridden by a mutual pragmatism that shifts with circumstances. As the only book on the subject that combines a unified assessment of the historical evolution, contemporary status, and likely prospects of U.S.-Chinese relations, this balanced and pragmatic study will be an essential resource for all concerned with the globe's most crucial bilateral partnership.

Relations between China and the United States have been of central importance to both countries over the past half century. Offers the first multinational, multi archival review of the history of Chinese-American conflict and cooperation in the 1970s.