U.S. Role Orientation Towards China And China-U.S. Relations

"Stakeholder"was first put forward by Robert Zoellick who was the deputy Secretary of the State in his speech"Wither China: From Membership to Responsibility?"on September 21, 2005. The latest role identity given by the U.S. immediately drew the attention of both America and Chinese government and scholars. It adds new energy to the historical identities given by America and makes the relationship between China and America become more diverse. From the end of the cold war to today, every time America gave an identity to China, its foreign policy and the relationship with China would be affected. It's the importance of identity in American strategy that makes it significant to research China and U.S. relations from this angle.The first part focuses on the explanation of the identification and its application in realistic international relationship. Identification includes two parts: identity and ideas. The two parts connects with each and affects each other. The role identity is mainly talked about in this article. It exists in the relationship between two entities and the formation of it depends on shared viewpoints. In international relation, the formation of the role identity relies on the interactions among countries and the political culture within a country. America has used to give role identities to other countries and the above two factors are clearly showed in its foreign policy. That's why the theory about identification can be used to explain and research China—U.S. relations. However, in reality, the theory cannot tell all about the relation between the two countries and it has its own shortcomings.The second part mainly pays attention the formation and development of"stakeholder"theory. There is no Chinese word to correspond with the word"stakeholder"which was originally used in economic field and was later introduced by Robert Zoellick to the field of international politics. It means the shared interests and common responsibilities. The identity of"stakeholder"given by the U.S. positively implies that America has recognized the important role of China in safeguarding the international system and has stressed the shared interests between America and China in order to develop the bilateral relations. The core content of"stakeholder", however, is that America hopes to change China's behavior by the rules of international system and ask China to bear responsibilities. The new identity disappears in less than a year which means that American worries about the future trend of China's action that it cannot offer a definite role identity to China.The third part talks about the American strategic factors that influence its role identities chosen for China based on the theory of"stakeholder". First, the deeper influence is from American political culture which not only plays an important part in cementing inside common values but deeply affects its mode thinking and its strategy. Second, American international strategy and strategic interaction between China and America also affect the formation of identity given to China. Recently, the key point of American strategy is still to safeguard its hegemony, because of which America worries about the future of the rising China. The U.S. needs China's cooperation in many fields and actually China attaches importance to the relationship with America. The expansion of the cooperation and shared interests between the two countries lays a solid foundation for their good identification. But the contradictions between China and America in economic, security and political fields will produce potential barriers for their positive role identification.The fourth part discussed the inspiration that can be found in historical role identities given by America and the future of the relation between China and America. From the end of the cold war to today, china's role continually changed in America's mind: the"enemy"in early 1990s; the"constructive strategic partnership"in the second term of Bill Clinton's office; the"strategic competitor"when George W. Bush was first in power and the"stakeholder"introduced by Robert Zoellick in September 2005. None of the role identities, however, can better cement American inside ideas about china than the role of the Soviet Union in the cold war. Because of this, America has been trying to find balance between"engagement"and"containment". At present, both china and America hope to develop bilateral relations through their shared interests. But the cooperation history between China and America demonstrates that without the basis of positive identification the partnership is not stable and lacks the power to keep on going. One of the problems in China—U.S. relations is that America hasn't used to get along with a rising China, which is also a key factor influencing the formation of good identification. For the United States, China can either be menace or a friend. It depends on how America judges China's role and the interaction between China and America. The stable cooperation on the basis of positive identification will safeguard the future bilateral relations.In sum, the foreseeable future will be a period full of contradictions and complexity in which China and America will be trying to adapt to each other and actively thinking how to get along with each other for themselves and from the situation taken as a whole. The"enemy","partner","competitor"and"stakeholder"will possibly affect or even lead the future China-U.S. relations in different time and fields. The countries are"partners"in economic field,"competitors"in military field,"stakeholders"in international cooperation field or they may have different identities in the same field. In general, in the period in which the international relation becomes more and more complex, one role identity of course cannot tell all about the relationship between China and America , only if we put all role identities together can we draw a panorama of the two countries'relations which is full of contradictions, opportunities and challenges, and only if we view the relations with profound and lasting strategy and the thought on the basis of mutually benefits can we lead it to the road of constructive and cooperative partnership.