Chinese-Us Relations

Since the end of the Second World War, the relationship between the United States and China has been dominated by intermittent periods of stability and tension. However, many contemporary international relations analysts now believe that conflict with China is inevitable. John J. Mearsheimer posits his belief that “If China continues its impressive economic growth over the next few decades, the United States and China are likely to engage in an intense security competition with considerable potential for war”.
According to Mearsheimer’s theory of offensive realism, the international system forces states concerned about their security into a power struggle. There are three definitive traits of the international system, which combine to form an environment in which states fear each other and vie for relative power. These characteristics are: 1) the international system operates in anarchy, 2) all powerful states have some military prowess and, consequently, the ability to inflict damage on other states, and 3) no state can be certain of the intentions of the other states. The reasonable goal of a powerful state is, therefore, to become a hegemon (the only powerful state in the system). Due to China’s increasing economic faculty, military power, and diplomatic domination, it is reasonable to believe that in the near future China will become a relatively well-matched rival with the United States for power and that the friction between the two states will continue to augment, with increasing competition and possible armed combat.
In October 1949, Chinese Communist Party leader Mao Zedong established the People's Republic of China in Beijing after peasant-backed Communists defeated the Nationalist government of Chiang Kai-shek. Kai-Shek and thousands of his troops fled to the island of Taiwan, where he established his Republic of China government in Taipei. The United States refused to acknowledge the mainland People’s Republic of China until president Jimmy Carter...