ABSTRACT
This chapter explores some important discrepancies between China and the United States in the course of the construction of their foreign policy after the cold war. The dilemma between the economic and political balance of US policy toward China is considered a foreign policy divergence between them. The trigger of possible trade sanctions between the United States and China was released when both sides finally reached an agreement over the trade disputes regarding piracy and property rights on 17 June 1996. China adopted an economic open door policy after the Third Plenum of the Chinese Communist Party Eleventh Central Committee in December 1978. Seeing the improvement of Sino-American economic relations, the foreign policy orientation was disrupted by the Chinese crackdown on the student demonstration in Tiananmen Square. In particular, China was awarded most-favored-nation status in 1980 under the US-China Trade Agreement as a result of the 1979 formal normalization agreement.
