ABSTRACT
This chapter examines what might be termed the 'vast improvement narrative' and argues that, in several key areas, United States-China relations were parked in a better place. It contextualizes the administration's score card by exploring one major factor that affected its attempts to engage effectively with China: the nature and impact of China's geopolitics-altering rise. The Chinese government also agreed to regular US-China counterterrorism meetings dealing with financing and law enforcement, granted permission for the establishment of a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) legal attache's office in Beijing and considered a US request to place US Customs inspectors at Chinese ports to help inspect US-bound cargoes. The various formal US-China agreements and understandings papered over some very large cracks. On one occasion then-President Hu Jintao was introduced at the White House as the 'President of the Republic of China'.
