By Yu Jiantuo, China Development Research Foundation

Research Report, No.185, 2021 (Total 6250) 2021-7-5

Abstract: The US strategy towards China from the diplomatic ice-breaking period to the Obama administration can be regarded as the strategy of engagement in general. However, when this conception was put into Chinese, due to improper interpretation, the US strategic goals and measures are often misunderstood. Therefore, this paper clarified the connotations and facts about the strategy of engagement and pointed out that this strategy is a short-term and expedient one in nature. This paper analyzed the misunderstandings of the engagement strategy in China and the reasons why the U.S. has maintained the engagement strategy towards China for such a long period of time. First, the U.S. has not changed its positioning of China as a rival. Second, the U.S. has gained a lot of profits from the engagement with China and is reluctant to give up the strategy. Third, the U.S. is incapable of rolling out and putting into effect relevant strategies. Under the engagement framework, we need to refrain from the positioning of competitors or rivals between China and U.S. relations and actively respond to the US containment imposed on China.

Keywords: engagement strategy, China-U.S. relations, new relationship among major countries