| With the ending of the Cold War, the China-U.S. relationship entered a new period. The trade and economic relations have lain in place of the strategic ones, a new ground work for this bilateral relationship. In 1990's, the foreign direct investment (FDI) of the Multinational Corporations (MNCs) not only deepened the economic interdependence between China and United States, but also played an active role in their political relations. The International Political Economics (IPE), which born in 1970's, has provided many insight observations and theories on the issue of MNCs and interdependence. While being trapped by the paradigm of state centrism, theories of these two issues are still need to be improved. The major theme of this thesis is to develop the IPE study of MNCs and interdependence, analyze and evaluate MNCs' political role and impact in China-U.S. relations.The major content of the thesis includes:Preface: U.S. MNCs and U.S.-China Relations. The U.S. MNCs re-entered China in 1980's and grew rapidly. In 1990's, the U.S. MNCs achieved great developments both in the scale of the investment and in the profit. The social and economic relations between China and U.S. significantly strengthened in the post-Cold War era, while the bilateral political relation met many troubles in the same period. This contradictive phenomenon causes a theoretical dilemma in explaining China- U.S. relations.Chapter One: the IPE Studies of MNCs and Interdependence. The IPE theories of MNCs can be divided into three major schools - liberalism, theory of dependence and mercantilism. These three schools of thought transformed and developed under the background of globalization. The major theoretic division between realism and liberalism stemmed from the sensitivity and vulnerability of interdependence. With cost-benefit model, game theory and empirical studies, the IPE studies of interdependence have made great progress, but still left weak point, which mainly caused by the state-centrism paradigm.Chapter Two: MNCs and Inter-states Interdependence. The ideal type of Complex Interdependence, which was formulated by Robert Keohane and Joseph Nye, enlightens the theoretic study of interdependence. The power in international relations changed by its nature, structure and ways of exercise under the condition of interdependence. The state to state relations transformed therefore to policy interactive model. This model of analysis created the political role of MNCs. Due to the "sunk costs" of foreign investment, the major role of MNCs political activity is to sustain the stability of inter-states relations. The major political role played by MNCs can be described as political mobilization, set political agenda and information communication.Chapter Three: MNCs in U.S. Politics. The U.S. politics, which is characterized as "weak state and strong society", created an environment for the participation of interest groups. The MNCs played a very active role in the politics of decision making by their interest relatives, thecompetitive context and organiztional resources. The major political strategies of MNCs include: direct lobby, indirct lobby, grass-roots lobby, and political action committees. The political performances of MNCs are determined by the nature of industries, issue areas, the openess and competitives of decision-making process.Chapter four: MNCs' role in U.S.-China Human Rights Debates. The Clinton administration exprierenced a turning point from linkage to delikage policy on the issue of China's human rights and most favourite statues during 1993 to 1994. The economic interdependence is the vital factor to the delinkage decision. In the relations of inequivilent interdepence between China and U.S., the MNCs and U.S. business community played a crucial role in this process.Chaper five: MNCs in the Development of U.S.-China Trade and Economic Relations. The trade and economic relations between U.S. and China have achieved great development in 1990s, while it also accompanied with many crisis such as trad...
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