Conducting the China-U.S. Relationship: A Diplomat’s View

Abstract

We turn finally to what effect the relational paradigm and the concept of relationship could have on the conduct of a major interstate relationship. In the face of steadily increasing complex interactions between the bodies politic of China and the United States, experience since 1989 suggests that traditional ways of managing government-to-government relations will not serve the interests of a relationship that could shape the global community more than any other in the twenty-first century.