ABSTRACT
Foreign Minister Qian Qichen expressed a view in mid-November 1997, when he observed that the Jiang-Clinton summit moved Sino-American relations into a new phase of cooperation in building toward a constructive strategic partnership. There were an increasing number of Americans becoming convinced that China had moved beyond acceptable behavior in areas of security, trade, and human rights. For their part, the Chinese seemed very satisfied with the Jiang-Clinton summit, primarily because it seemed to signal an adjustment in United States (US) policy toward more accommodation to China's rising power. One of the most critical factors in evaluating future US policy toward Taiwan and China is American perceptions of the possible Chinese threat to US interests in the Asian Pacific. During the 1997-1998 period, the US and China also flirted once again with strategic partnership, but by mid-1999 that objective seemed unattainable during the Clinton administration.
