|US policy towards China can be described as 'a hesitant trust'
[GALLO/GETTY] This month marks the 40th anniversary of Henry
Kissinger's secret trip to Beijing, which launched the process
of mending a 20-year breach in diplomatic relations between the
United States and China. That trip, and President Richard
Nixon's subsequent visit, represented a major Cold War
realignment. The US and China put aside their intense hostility
in a joint and successful effort to contain an expansionist
Soviet Union. Today, the Soviet Union has vanished, and Chinese
power is growing. Some in the US argue that China's rise cannot
be peaceful, and that the US, therefore, should now adopt a
policy of containing the People's Republic. Indeed, many Chinese
officials perceive that to be the current American strategy.
They are wrong. After all, Cold War containment of the USSR
meant virtually no trade and little social contact. Today, by
contrast, the US not only has massive trade with China, but also
extensive social contact, includin