From cooperative partnership to strategic competition: a review of China–U.S. relations 2009–2019

Abstract

From 2009 to the first half of 2019, China-U.S. relations have experienced a gradual yet sustained downturn. Particularly since 2017, the bilateral relationship has suffered a rapid downward spiral in almost every dimension. By early 2019, more and more Chinese and American observers are warning that the two countries may be moving toward a long-term, full-scale confrontation. This article reviews the 10-year deterioration of bilateral ties in three stages and analyzes the context behind and reasons for the steady downturn. Internal developments in the two countries have driven the changes in U.S.-China relations. Bilateral tensions in the realms of geostrategy, ideology, economics and trade, and international security are escalating and intensifying. Such a trend is unlikely to be reversed without major changes in world politics or the two countries' domestic politics. The greatest probability, as we see it, will be a continued downturn in the U.S.-China relationship with many bumps and stumbling blocks along the way. The best prospect both sides can hope for may be the Chinese saying dou-er-bu-po, or "fighting without breaking.

Framing the Games: US Media Coverage of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics

“…US media coverage of China is important amid the steady decline in US-China bilateral relations in recent years. The deterioration has occurred in phases, according to scholars Wang Jisi and Hu Ran (2019, p. 2): “(1) deepening strategic distrust from 2009 to 2012; (2) frustrations in establishing a “new model of major power relations” from 2013 to 2016; and (3) the U.S. defining China as a strategic adversary since 2017.” President Biden’s approach to China has continued the adversarial path paved by his presidential predecessor. The highly mediatized adversarial relationship has affected US political discourse—and this study registers the imprint of the declining relationship as it appeared in four prominent US newspapers—but it also affects perceptions of China by everyday Americans.…”

A Genuine Blend of Statecrafts

“…Beginning with the collapse of the Soviet Union, Beijing maintained and strengthened close relations with the West (Lampton 2001, 65–7). China continued following Zhou En‐Lai's “Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence” (see Garver 1994, 136; Ministry of Foreign Affairs [MFA] 2014; Jin 2017, 46) and Deng Xiaoping's “keeping a low profile in international politics” (Jisi 2011; Yan 2014) from the 1990s until the NATO's intervention in Libya in 2011 (White 2014). During this period, China built close relations with the regional governments and focused on its industrial development and diversification of its oil import sources.…”

Competition for High Politics in Cyberspace: Technological Conflicts Between China and the USA

“…The majority of the literature focuses on confrontation, but a minority is facing the other way. Jisi and Ran (2019) point out that the China-US relationship has been deteriorating in several dimensions. For instance, geostrategy, ideology, economics, and security issues have suffered considerable alterations since 2017.…”