On Sino-US Co-operations And Disputes Within The UN Framework After The Cold War

The United Nations, the United States and China are playing a most important role on the international arena, for they are the biggest international organization, developed country and developing country respectively. The development of their relationships are to a large extent reflecting cooperation as well as disputes in multiple fields of the world.Different regimes, cultural backgrounds, ideologies as well as axiologies lead to mutually distinctive attitudes and foreign policies of China and the US to the United Nations, the world's leading multilateral organization. Ever since the UN was established, the United States has been capitalizing on it to dominate the world. In the wake of the Cold War, especially after George W. Bush assumed the duty as president in 2001, the "profit only" tendency toward the UN has become increasingly obvious, a standpoint different from that of China that promotes equality of all countries based on the UN Charter. Different stances between China and the US in terms of the UN exert a direct impact on their bilateral relations as well as cooperation and disputes of both sides within the UN framework. Therefore, what kind of role the UN plays in Sino-US relations and what kind of changes will take place in cooperation and disputes between the two within the UN framework are worth studying.The present thesis attempts to analyze the UN-framework-governed Sino-US relations via categorization and statistics, regarding issues like the Security Council, arms control, anti-terrorism, socio-economic development, environmental protection and human rights. Comparison between cooperation and disputes of the two countries is also made to display their respective new visions mirrored by the UN. Globalization is a sword with positive and negative aspects, which fosters the ambition of economic giants like the US to expand and brings more common interests to both of the countries. In such circumstance, an increase of indirect interests, an avoidance toward tit-for-tat confrontation, and a strengthening balance role of the UN are all factors that lead co-operations as the major trend in the Sino-US relations within the UN framework. However, due to the different stance on the UN, and some part of bilateral conflicts being stretched in multilateral field as well, there are still disputes between China and the US within the framework till now.Another practical problem lies ahead that how China, a permanent member of the UN Security Council enjoying veto power, deals with such cooperation and disputes. With globalization proceeding rapidly, Sino-US relationship has emerged as one of the world's most important bilateral relations, and at the same time the UN, a fledging platform for multilateral exchanges, has taken an ever firm foothold in world affairs. In such circumstances, China is expected to promote bilateral and multilateralcooperation with the US and bring the role of the UN into full play, in a bid to heighten its international image.The present thesis consists of four parts. The first part analyzes respective UN foreign policies of China and the US. The second part and main body elaborates on Sino-US cooperation and disputes within the UN framework in six aspects. Comparison is made between cooperation and disputes of the two sides within and beyond the UN framework. Part three sheds light on what underlies changes of such cooperation and differences. The last part provides tentative suggestions on China's next moves in the face of the new situation.