Research On U.s. Engagement Policy Towards China In Post-cold War

After experiencing the close cooperation during the Cold War and with the demise of Soviet Union, American policy towards China was confronted with the necessary option of reconstructing strategic common sense and exploring a new framework. After the Cold War, American academia raised the great debate about the foreign policy towards China, and gradually formed the common sense of engagement policy towards China by primarily, expecting to realize the maximization of American interests. The George Herbert Bush administration firstly put forward the policy of"comprehensive engagement"with China, which is in a considerable degree the expediency. Its engagement range is limited and belongs to the surface. It's mainly account of the assertion of isolating from China in the United States after the"June 4th"event, aiming at maintaining the given policy from Nixon. In the early time of Clinton administration, the relation between the two countries is in the valley due to that the government put the human rights issue in the core of Sino-U.S. relations. And it got better only when the"engagement strategy"to China was put forward at the end of the first term. The Clinton administration's engagement policy upgraded obviously in the breadth and depth. But meanwhile, he began to keep a lookout, which could be called"hedge the bets". His policy of"comprehensive engagement"with China maintained and carried Sino-U.S .relations to further development in the main, and approximately constructed American's basic framework of policy to China, that is the basic principle of maintaining engagement with China. In the beginning stage of George Walker Bush administration, although he attacked that Clinton's policy to China was too"weak", and he regarded China as the"strategic competitor", which turned his policy to China to a containment trend. In fact, confronted by the current situation, he hoped China to be the"responsible stakeholder". From the practical content, although Bush's policy to China had no engagement in name, it had engagement in reality, and the engagement range and level had already gone beyond"simple engagement". Compared with George H.W. Bush and Clinton, the George Walker Bush administration put more emphasis on precaution and containment when cooperating with China. Thus, that whether the engagement policy can be the consistent position of US to China is an issue worth further and deeper analysis and discussion in the academic community.On the basis of previous studies, this research tries to adopt the methods of comparative study, the combination of analysis and synthesis, and the unification of history and logic, etc.; systematically inquires and inspects the US's engagement policy to China in various points of view; sums up the reasons, contents, features and goals of the engagement policy; and based on this, boldly presumes that the mainline of US administration's policy to China in future will inherit and continue the policy of engagement and cooperation to China of the previous administrations, but only can it change for some accidental factors. But, the fundamental goal of US's engagement policy is that as an approach and process, through communicating with various levels of China and understanding them, engagement can better realize US's interests. To prevent the challenge to US for the rise of China while enhancing mutual trust and reciprocity of Sino-US, and trying to integrate China into the American-dominated international system will be the overall trend of US's policy to China in the future.