The Normalization Of U.S.-China Relations From Carter Administration's Diplomatic Strategy

After the World War II,the world was divided into two camps,which confronted each other.One is the capitalism camp led by the United States,the other is the socialism camp led by the Soviet Union.In 1960s,the relationship between China and the Soviet Union began to sour and even had some conflicts.At that time,the US wanted to promote the US-China relationship,which can help US become dominant in the US-Soviet Union-China triangles.US made this kind of efforts since Nixon administration and finally succeeded in normalization with China during the Carter administration.After Secretary of State Vance's and Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs Zbigniew Brzezinski's visits to China,the US and China began the negotiation on the normalization and established diplomatic relations in January 1st 1979.Making use of the documents of Foreign Relations of the United States and U.S.Declassified Documents Online,the thesis discusses the whole process of the normalization from the US's strategic perspective.The first chapter focuses on the US-China relationship during the initial period of Carter administration.After taking office,the Carter administration reviewed the documents left by the previous presidents and had a preliminary view on the US-China relationship.During this period,the administration did not attach much importance on the bilateral relationship because of other agendas.However,there were still some exchanges between US and China,which paved the way for the future development of the US-China relationship.The second chapter reviewed Vance's visit to China.The US gradually realized that the administration ignored US-China relationship to some degrees.Considering the importance of this bilateral relationship,the US decided to let Vance visit China in 1977 in order to know Chinese position on the US-China normalization.During this visit,Vance talked with Hua Guofeng,Deng Xiaoping and Huang Hua.Deng Xiaoping criticized Vance's positions on normalization as a retreat from the previous positions.In spite of this,Vance's trip to China was still important to the two countries at that time.It is the first time of new top leaders of two countries to talk about their own ideas face to face.This visit helped the two countries know each other's positions.After this visit,the US-China relationship reached a stagnation period because of the other agendas in US.In 1978,China invited Zbigniew Brzezinski to visit China.During this visit,China and US's positions on the Soviet Union had more similarities than before.The two countries also stated their respective views on normalization clearly.According to this visit,US formed a preliminary plan on normalization,which laid a foundation for the successful negotiations afterwards.The fourth chapter focuses on the whole process of normalization negotiations between US and China.Huang Hua and Woodcock conducted the initial negotiations.When the negotiations reached into the final period,Deng Xiaoping also participated in the negotiations and decided the final normalization scheme.The normalization between US and China is not only important to the history of these two countries,but also have a fundamental impact on the whole world.The normalization bridges the difference of ideologies,end the confrontation and open a new chapter of US-China relationship.With the normalization,the two countries have cooperated in various fields since then,which has made great contributions to the development of human history.