Managing a Rising Power Strains in US China Policy

摘要

Over the past five years, the global media have been swift to identify shifts in US China policy, noting the apparent reclassification of China from 'strategic partner' during Bill Clinton's presidency to Bush's 'strategic competitor' and then back towards a relationship defined by bilateral 'security collaboration'. United States China policy encapsulates the complexity of relations between a dominant power and a rising challenger. This twin-track policy combines elements of engagement and containment and has been labelled 'hedged integration'. The Bush Administration, however, has in reality continued to follow the same China framework as that used by six administrations before, which is in essence a policy aimed at binding China into the norms and structures of the current international order whilst constraining its more unilateral impulses.