Relations in Need of Better Management: Reflections on Sino-American Relations During the Past Three Decades

Abstract

One of the most balanced words that might be used to characterize the 30 or 40 years of the Sino-American relationship is Engagement is the correct term and dialogue has been a major part of that engagement. Especially since the beginning of the twenty-first century, dialogue mechanisms have had a great impact on the development of bilateral relations and continues to do so over the next four or eight years of the Obama Administration. Now both Republican and Democratic presidents of the United States, as well as their Chinese counterpart, have all claimed the Sino-American relationship to be the most important bilateral relationship in the world. Certainly, the bilateral relations of the two countries in the past decades cannot to be described as an alliance: they are not friends or partners, nor are they enemies or purely competitors. Dialogue mechanisms are a bilateral and cooperative approach between China and the United States.