American Foreign Policy Towards China And The Establishment Of Sino-US Diplomatic Relations During The Carter Administration

Since 1972 President Nixon's "ice-breaking" visit to China,the normalization of Sino-US relations had been mentioned in the agenda of the United States.However,until seven years later,in the Carter administration's term,the two countries finally established full diplomatic relations.By analyzing the US government declassified documents,we will find the decision-making is a very complicated problem.It is not only related to the transformation of the United Stated strategic priorities,but also related to the evaluation of China's political situation.At the same time,it is affected by different views of the US government departments.Therefore,this paper based on the Carter administration's declassified documents,is divided into three parts.The first part shows the early days of Carter administration's policy on China,which is the initial exploration period and adjustment period.After a serious of discussions and assessments,the Carter Administration formally set up the orientation of establishing diplomatic relations in 1978.The second part discusses the Carter administration's cognition of the second generation collective leadership of the Chinese Communist Party,which contains the analysis of China's political situation and the judgment of Deng Xiaoping's governing capacity.In contact with China,the Carter administration has gradually recognized the bottom line of China.The third part summarizes the result of the US assessment on China and the consequence of Sino-American association—the full diplomatic relations has realized.On this road,the development of Sino-US cooperation and exchange programs and the settlement of the controversial issues have become an important driving factor.However,when the Carter administration preliminary adjust US-Taiwan relations,the decision it made violated the spirit of Sino-US agreement,which to a certain extent affected the significance of Sino-US normalization.In short,this paper takes the Carter administration's intelligence evaluation as the main line,with the secretive Sino-US diplomatic negotiations as an auxiliary,trying to restore the Carter administration's decision-making process.And revealing in the complex international relations,the diplomatic philosophy of the United States serves for its own interests.