Living U.S.-China Relations

From Cold War to Cold War

David M. Lampton

• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
• Year: 2024
• eBook ISBN: 9781538187265
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Chinese History
• Index: History

This book addresses head-on a core current critique of how the Sino-American relationship was managed across eight administrations. The essence of this critique is that naïve U.S. elites confused their hopes for democracy and a globally responsible China with the actual prospects for those desirable ends, and, in the process, unwisely traded away American interests, competitive position, and national security. In short, the U.S. bolstered the principal strategic threat that it now faces. This book is a fact-based challenge to that simplistic narrative.
Today, developments in the U.S.-China relationship are converging in a fashion that is setting off fire alarm bells. At this moment, in 2023, the underbrush is plentiful, the winds unfavorable, and the atmosphere parched. The fire hazard between America and China is increasing unlike anything we have seen in a half century. This volume describes our current condition and explains the last half-century that has brought us to this perilous day.
The defining and unique characteristic of Living U.S.-China Relations is that it tells the story of U.S.-China ties as the relationship between two societies, not just two states, and it does so through the author's lived experience over nearly sixty years.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Figures
• Preface and Acknowledgments
• Chapter One: The Chinese Kaleidoscope: (The Early Years)
• Chapter Two: “It’s Miss Turner—And I Like It That Way!”: (The 1960s)
• Chapter Three: To the Field: (The Early 1970s)
• Chapter Four: The Old Man and the Dirt: (Post-Mao China)
• Chapter Five: Normalization: (Into the 1980s)
• Chapter Six: Ohio: The Heart of It All: (The Rust Belt Era)
• Chapter Seven: Science, Technology, and Leadership: (The Mid-1980s)
• Chapter Eight: Life Has No Tenure: (Into a New Decade)
• Chapter Nine: Shanghai: (Post-Tiananmen, 1989–1990)
• Chapter Ten: From the White House to Capitol Hill: (The 1990s Politically)
• Chapter Eleven: Doing New Things with China: (The 1990s, Opportunities)
• Chapter Twelve: Staffing the Leviathan: Human Resources: (Into the New Millennium)
• Chapter Thirteen: Ideas and Organizations
• Chapter Fourteen: Sino-American Relations and Chinese Foreign Policy
• Chapter Fifteen: Schizophrenia: Connectivity and Insularity
• Chapter Sixteen: History: Not Over, Nor Just Begun: (Looking Ahead)