The Influence Upon Sino-American Relationship Made By American "Smart Power" Diplomatic Strategy

As the first black president of United States, Barack Obama came to power under the banner of "Change". He adjusted American's foreign policy to resume the power in decline of the United States, to resolve the problem of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, the critical financial crisis and the challenges in global issues. Obama Administration changed the foreign policy of Bush Administration which over-relied on "hard power", to the "smart power" diplomatic strategy, which emphasized on contact and cooperation, international organize and multilateralism, balance and integration of hard and soft power of American, to ensure the national interests of US."Smart power" diplomatic strategy which refers to the using of all the feasible means in diplomatic, economic, military, political, legal, cultural and some other fields, to open a new diplomatic situation in the US, was formally put forward by Hillary Clinton, the Secretary of US, on her nomination hearing hold by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on January 13,2009. It contains four meanings:(1) the mean to win their interest and to utilize the resources comprehensively; (2) the flexibility and the effectiveness in the implementation of foreign policy; (3) the relative variability of the strategic means; (4) the priority of diplomatic means. The goal of this strategy is to resume the dominance of American power and maintain its global leadership, to strengthen the alliance system led by US, to promote the so-called human rights, democracy and freedom, and to against the rise of the great nations which may have challenged the interests of US.As a big emerging nation in Asian, China has been naturally considered as the main subject of Obama's "smart power" policy because of one of the key point of their diplomatic strategy-"Return to Asia". In these two years, Obama Administration used both "soft" and "hard" power to deal with China. On the one hand, they demand China to take on more international responsibility to help them get through their economic crisis, and on the other hand, they keep watch on China and obstruct China all the time, even on the way of sacrificing China's core interest, which results in the ups and downs in Sino-US relations.Based on the research of the power theory in international relationship and the internal and external background of US, this paper attempts to analyze the connotation and substance of Obama's "smart power" diplomatic strategy in detail, point out its impact on China and give some proposes on it.