Witnesses: John J. Sweeney, AFL-CIO; George M. C. Fisher, Eastman Kodak Co. and Business Coalition for U.S.-China Trade; Harold "Terry" McGraw III, McGraw-Hill Companies and Emergency Committee for Amer. Trade; Frederick W. Smith, FDX Corp.; Robert A. Kapp, U.S.-China Business Council; Jack Valenti, Motion Picture Assoc. of Amer., Inc.; Sy Sternberg, N.Y. Life Insurance Co.; Neil E. Gambow, Jr., Post Glover Resistors Inc.; Steve Van Andel, U.S. Chamber of Commerce; George David, United Technologies Corp. and Business Coalition for U.S.-China Trade; and Steve Van Andel, Amway Corp. and U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

"Relations between China and the United States have been of central importance to both countries over the past half-century, as well as to all states affected by that relationship—Taiwan and the Soviet Union foremost among them. Only recently, however, has the opening of archives made it possible to research this history dispassionately. The eight chapters in this volume offer the first multinational, multi-archival review of the history of Chinese–American conflict and cooperation in the 1970s. On the Chinese side, normalization of relations was instrumental to Beijing’s effort to enhance its security vis-à-vis the Soviet Union and was seen as a tactical necessity to promote Chinese military and economic interests. The United States was equally motivated by national security concerns. In the wake of Vietnam, policymakers saw normalization as a means of forestalling Soviet power. As the essays in this volume show, normalization was far from a foregone conclusion."

As relations between the United States and China move into a period of intense activity and sensitivity, this timely book addresses the impact of domestic factors in both countries on their post-Cold War/post-Tiananmen relations. The contributors examine the issue from a number of distinct perspectives: the increased impact of domestic factors in both countries due to changing strategic circumstances; the politics of China policy in the United States, with emphasis on the role of interest groups vis-a-vis Congress, the media, and other domestic institutions; the importance of domestic factors in U.S.-China economic conflicts; the combined impact of domestic factors in both China and the United States on the most important conflict of interest in U.S.-China relations -- the Taiwan issue.

Using an interdisciplinary social-science approach, Temporal Horizons and Strategic Decisions in US–China Relations: Between Instant and Infinite takes on the challenge of understanding the foreign policy decision process through the lens of the temporal horizon. A temporal horizon is the distance into the future a decision-maker prioritizes when evaluating outcomes and considering possibilities. By looking at a number of recent key moments of US–China relations that have immediate, short-term, long term, and far-reaching implications, the book considers which are predominant in the policy process. Looking at the role of time as a factor in the decision-making process is not new to political science, but this book attempts to break down and articulate the process by looking at a range of specific time frames. The book places special attention on future considerations in a variety of ways, combining the insights of psychology, economics, and future studies to consider political science in a new manner.

At the end of the 20th Century, the focus of global attention and concern is on the future relationship between the world's most influential nation and its most populous one. The series of high-level meetings and the exchange of unusually long summit visits that occupied the center of the world stage in the late 1990s reveal that both sides recognize the other's global importance. In the words of President Bill Clinton, "the role China chooses to play will powerfully shape the next century." The years 1997 and 1998 will be remembered by many for the critically acclaimed summit visits of Jiang Zemin to the United States and Bill Clinton to China. This book moves beyond the Clinton-Jiang summits of 1997-1998 to explore long-term prospects in light of recent developments. Nineteen scholars from diverse disciplines, including eight from China mainland institutions, address the outlook for security relations in the Asia-Pacific Region; prospects for strategic partnership; issues concerning Taiwan, Tibet, and trade; the potential for information, technology, and educational exchanges; future competition for natural resources; changing images of each other; and other critical dimensions of expanding non-state relationships. The interaction of China and the United States promises to constitute the world's most important bilateral relationship well into the 21st Century. To be constructive and enduring, relationships must be based on mutual understanding and respect. This volume provides an opportunity to advance both foundations among students, scholars, policy makers, and the attentive public in the East and the West.