Bilateral tension has and continues to pose a major threat to developing as well as developed countries world over. However, having a clear understanding as well as demonstrating how the United States and China bilateral relations evolve has posted challenging tasks for both policy formulators as well as scholars. The underlying tensions make predictions of the future trade relations between the duos to be more speculative than can be explained by existing scientific tools. The current discussions in the socioeconomic and political rise of the People’s Republic of China, for instance, illicit static predictions: pessimistic as well as optimistic two countries’ policy attitudes and the overall relations. The paper argument will revolve around the idea that the characteristic of the US-China bilateral relationships is by design, influenced by the perception of their respective leaders. The leaders can either view the relationship as either a source of a security threat or perceive such as economic interests. It will exploit the provision of neoclassical realism and propose “threat-interest” theoretical framework in three stages in the exploration of major China-US dynamic relationships in the periods between 1949 up to 2015.
The work will be subdivided into five parts. The first part will evaluate the “static prejudice” debates surrounding the rise of China followed by theorizing the characteristics of the China-US relationship which forms the dependent variable. I propose that trend and issue are the two divergent tools that can be used to measure the China-US bilateral relations. Cooperation and competition will form the first category and the second categorization of the nature of the US-China bilateral relations would be in the context of the military, economic, political as well as cultural influences. The interplay between such phenomenon as well as bilateral relationship aspects singularly and collectively defines the nature of US-China bilateral relationship as economic competition and cooperation or military competition or cooperation (Toft, 2009).
In part three, the three-stage model of “threat-interest” will be introduced in striving to demonstrate the US-China relationship dynamics. My argument will revolve around the idea that the characteristic of the US-China bilateral relationships is by design, influenced by the perception of their respective leaders. The leaders can either view the relationship as either a source of a security threat or perceive such as economic interests.
The fourth activity will involve utilizing the threat-interest model in evaluating how the United States and China bilateral relationships have evolved in the periods between 1949 and 2017. The study will then suggest that any future encounters between the United States and China solely relies on the manner in which their respective leaders are capable of managing their reserved perceptions and whether both can achieve common stands between competition as well as cooperation economically and military. Failure to which, the relationship will continue to be that of suspect and anarchy in both countries with each determined to safeguard their autonomy respective of the economic, social and political consequences (Steinberg, Fargo, Friedberg, Roy " Lampton, 2012).
Research question
Is the US-China bilateral relationship shaped by economic interests or security threats?
Problem statement
According to He " Walker (2015), for a country to rise to the highest status of power, conflict, and wars are the major determinants. China’s military budget, for instance, has witnessed massive growth as compared to its GDP growth estimated at 12 percent in a decade (Huenemann, 2010). The country commands over the 2.3-million-able army as well as in manufacturing sophisticated weapons such as nuclear submarines and stealth fighters (Huenemann, 2010). The overall goal is to wield power from the neighboring countries and beyond.
The country’s economy, on the other hand, has grown 10-fold in the last couple of decades. Majority of consumers in their millions throng markets to buy Chinese goods. The achievements are enhanced by the country’s enormous cheap labor, a relaxed policy on environmental protections and laxity in the protection of the intellectual property rights. The country’s rise pushed demand for fuel to exorbitant levels. All combined poses socioeconomic and political threats to developed as well as developing countries. The US for instance applied trade sanctions rejecting the Chinese products in the American markets during the Tiananmen pointing to an age old conflict (Zeng, 2004).
References
He, K., " Walker, S. (2015). Role bargaining strategies for China’s peaceful rise. The Chinese Journal of International Politics, 8(4), 371-388.
Huenemann, R. W. (2010). China's Rise: Challenges and Opportunities–By C. Fred Bergsten, Charles Freeman, Nicholas R. Lardy, and Derek J. Mitchell. The Developing Economies, 48(2), 277-279.
Steinberg, J. B., Fargo, T., Friedberg, A. L., Roy, J. S., " Lampton, D. M. (2012). Turning to the Pacific: US Strategic Rebalancing toward Asia. asia policy, (14), 21-49.
Toft, M. D. (2009). Securing the peace: the durable settlement of civil wars. Princeton University Press.
Zeng, K. (2004). Trade threats, trade wars: bargaining, retaliation, and American coercive diplomacy. University of Michigan Press.
