ABSTRACT
A year after the devas ta t ing ter ror is t attacks o n the U n i t e d States, SinoA m e r i c a n relat ions are the i r mos t stable since they began the i r decade-long de te r io ra t ion a n d constant f l uc tua t ion f o l l o w i n g the events of June 1989. The prospects for con t i nued s tab i l i ty are pos i t ive as l o n g as nei ther n a t i o n infr inges o n the core securi ty interests of the other. Some w o u l d d i spu te this assessment, i n c l u d i n g m a n y analysts i n Ch ina , since they see l i m i t e d ben efits f r o m post-September 11 S ino -Amer i can coopera t ion and c o n t i n u i n g u n d e r l y i n g tensions a n d fr ic t ions i n the re la t ionsh ip . 1 O f course, p rob lems do exist and , g i v e n the f luc tuan t h i s t o r y of S ino -Amer i can relat ions, i t w o u l d be a mis take to p r o c l a i m that the n e w f o u n d s tab i l i ty is pe rmanen t or can endure indef in i te ly . Yet, the ro l le r coaster of relat ions d u r i n g the
Originally published i n and reprinted w i t h permission from Current History (September 2002): 243-249. Copyright ©2002, Current History, Inc.
