ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses strategic engagement between the U.S. and China after the June 1989 Tiananmen incident. The U.S.–China relationship is the most consequential bilateral relationship in contemporary international relations. The extensive modernization and increasingly expansive outlook of the Chinese military coupled with the preeminent security position of the U.S. in the Asia-Pacific has necessitated strategic engagement to mitigate the risk of conflict. The first section evaluates the geopolitical environment between the U.S. and China prior to and after 1989 which motivated bilateral strategic engagement. The second section evaluates the many facets of strategic engagement between the U.S. and China, specifically a host of defence diplomatic and military-to-military interactions. By detailing the empirical record of Sino–U.S. strategic engagement over multiple decades, this case study inductively derives the contributing factors to success or failure. The third section explicates the lessons learned from the preceding empirical data. In addition to an overall assessment of success or failure, the contributing factors to the outcome of strategic engagement in this case study are discussed. Since U.S.–China strategic engagement has profound implications for contemporary international relations, the section concludes with results gleaned from the analysis which may guide current and future diplomatic and military-to-military efforts.
