ABSTRACT
The Tibet issue has, since the late 1980s, gained a high degree of salience in US relations with the People's Republic of China (PRC). The issue, however, is neither new nor so sudden as it might appear. It has 56 years of American engagement (1942-98) which, however, has fluctuated from strategic silence and covert operations to a high-profile public espousal of the "Tibetan cause".1 Such fluctuations may be, to a large extent, related to the changing phases of US strategy in their Asia and China policy in particular. In this sense the Tibet issue has functioned as an instrumental means to regulate US relations with China, either positively or negatively, as and when the international situation demanded.
