U. S.-CHINA POLICY

This section discusses the ebb and flow of American policy toward the PRC during the administrations of Gerald Ford (1974-1976), Jimmy Carter (1976-1980), Ronald Reagan (1980-1988) and the first year of the presidency of George Bush. It covers the period from the resignation of Nixon on August 8, 1974 to the massacre in Tienanmen Square on June 3-4, 1989 and its immediate aftermath.

The United States and the PRC were slow to capitalize on the momentum generated by the Nixon-Kissinger opening to China for a variety of domestic political and foreign policy reasons. Full normalization of relations was not accomplished until the third year of the Carter administration. Thereafter, American policy toward the PRC followed an uncertain course, which in the early to mid-1980s, was handicapped by friction over the Taiwan issue. By the late 1980s, American policy toward China appeared to have arrived at a firmer footing because of a commonality of interests vis-a-vis the Soviet Union and the Chinese decision to open its economy to the West and to initiate fundamental internal economic reforms. However, by the end of the 1980s, Sino-American relations foundered once more this time over the unwillingness of the PRC's leadership to accept any serious challenge to its monopoly of political power and the consequent revulsion of American public opinion and its government to the violent suppression by the Beijing government of

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ween 1978 and 1986, the PRC imported $10 billion worth of foreign technology and attracted over $8 billion in foreign investment. In 1987, 300,000 American tourists visited China and more than 20,000 Chinese students were in the United States (Garson, 1994, p. 1984). By the end of the decade, China was emerging as a creditor nation on the brink of becoming a major player in the global economy. However, these gross statistics and economic trends obscure significant political and economic problems which developed internally within the PRC and in Sino-American relations which were far from smooth in the decade leading up to the Tienanmen Square incident. 1981-1982 During the election campaign of 1980, candidate Reagan had been very critical of the foreign and defense policies of the Carter administration. Reagan stressed his support for Taiwan and criticized Carter's recognition of the PRC, which he said was done for "political expediency" and that Carter "made concessions that were not necessary and not in our national interest" (Kitts, 1991, p. 235). According to Lawson (1985), Reagan gave the impression that he "agreed with the China Lobby that Nationalist Taiwan should not be abandoned in favor of friendship with the Com
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Tienanmen Square, Deng Yang, Kong Foreign, According Hsu, China West, Domestic Developments, China United, Zhao Ziyang, Schaller Deng, Committee CCP, hsu 1990, taiwan issue, tienanmen square, university press, zhao ziyang, relations prc, foreign policy, according hsu, normalization relations, soviet union, mutual defense treaty, detente soviet union, taiwan relations act, arms sales taiwan, american relations prc,
Approximate Word count = 6323
Approximate Pages = 25 (250 words per page)

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