Abstract
The book "Cultural Politics"written by E. Lampton addresses two simple questions: Why is the relationship between the United States and China so difficult for Washington and Beijing to manage? And how can it be handled more effectively? The book reaches one simple conclusion: both nations can improve upon the diplomacy of the first post-cold war decade, but their association will always be characterized by a complex mix of cooperation and contention, at best.
In the 1970s and 190s, President Richard Nixon and Chairman Mao Zedong, followed by President Jimmy Carter and Supreme Leader Deng Xiaoping, gradually constructed a grand bargain that helped stabilize Sino-American relations for nearly two decades. With respect to Taiwan, the strategic imperative for Sino-American cooperation led Mao, Den, Xiao, and Carter all to agree that the island's status was an issued to be dealt with later.
Regarding U.S. security alliances, Beijing downplayed its anxieties concerning the U.S-Japan security alliance and American pacts elsewhere because it saw them in the service of containing the Soviet Union throughout much of the 1970s and 1980s. In fact, Beijing actually favored stronger alliances between the United States and its allies.
With regard to human rights, the Soviet threat allowed leaders in Beijing and Washington to downplay the two countries deep differences in this realm in the service of the more immediate objective of opposing Moscow.
