The US strategy of China under the Bush administration (2001-2006)

Abstract

In the immediate aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union, several scholars contended that in the absence of the structural constraints of the Cold War, new powers, which were expected to alter the unilateral world order and challenge the US hegemony, would emerge. Although currently the US strategic gravity is predominantly in the Middle East, the relationship between China and the United States will probably become more central to the world politics since China is deemed as the most likely challenger to the unilateral world order and the US hegemonic position in the future. Attempts to understand current relations between the two states and to anticipate prospective changes in these relations in the future, which are expected to transform the international politics, entail an inclusive analysis of the US strategy of China under the Bush Administration. Global primacy of the US, Chinese continual economic development, Chinese political activism in diverse aspects of international politics, and Chinese military modernization appear to be the main parameters of the US strategy of China under the Bush Administration. The Bush Administration aims at integrating China into international political and economic mechanisms, curbing the regional expansion of Chinese influence, and thereby concomitantly containing and engaging China. Yet, containment is the dominant, perhaps the sole, strategy as engagement is deemed as an indirect means of containing China by the Bush Administration. Regarding the future of bilateral relations between two states, whether the rise of China is to be confronted or accommodated by the US is still debated, both in the academia and in political circles.