Great Power Politics: A Sino-American Relations in the 21st Century

International Journal of Research and Scientific Innovation (IJRSI) | Volume V, Issue VI, June 2018 | ISSN 2321–2705

Great Power Politics: A Sino-American Relations in the 21st Century

ABA, Kenneth Pius

Central China Normal University, Wuhan, China

Abstract: China’s rise, its form, and implications have been a topical issue among international relations experts long before Xi Jinping assumed office as the General-Secretary of the Communist Party of China and President of the People’s Republic of China (the world’s most populous nation). Nevertheless, since 2012 (when President Xi took over the mantle of leadership of the country), questions of whether or not China is a threat to the existing international order, a revisionist state or a regional hegemon, have increased. Compared to his predecessors, Xi is said to be a more assertive and an ambitious leader. He presides over an economically viable and militarily powerful nation. The fact that China’s influence is increasing in global and regional affairs having survived the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997, sends shivers down the spine of its neighbors as they seem oblivious to her motives. In a unipolar political system largely controlled by the USA (the hegemon), China’s rapid economic growth and growing influence around the world especially in East Asia seems to be worrisome because like the Power Transition theory states that a new power is likely to question the legitimacy of the hegemon. However, China has maintained that its rise will be peaceful because it is neither a revisionist to an expansionist power. Since after the cold-war, relations between the two great powers have taken different turns. The two countries have had moments of confrontation, cooperation and competition in the 21st century. This article seeks to examine events like the South China Sea Disputes, Taiwan Issue, the Korean peninsula and Southeast Asia has shaped and will shape Sino-American relations now and in the future.

Keywords: Great Power Politics, USA, China, Cooperation, Confrontation, Competition

I. INTRODUCTION

The current international political system is uni-polar and the USA is the hegemon. Of course, after the disintegration of the Soviet Union, its military capabilities, technological Know-how and economic index became superior to no other. However, there are a few States whose rise and rapid development may be perceived as a potential threat to the hegemony. One of such States is the post-cold-war China. There seem to be some concerns as to the nature of Sino-American relations. Some scholars and diplomats posit that while this relationship was confrontational between 1949 and 1971, it was characterized by a Quasi-Cooperation from the early 1970s to the late 1980s. However, by the end of the cold war, the relationship turned towards cooperation, especially since China stood with the USA to fight the USSR (their common enemy at the time).

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