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| Relational Interaction, Identity Adjustment and Diplomatic Decision Making: Analyzing the Normalization of Relations between China and the US from 1972 to 1979 |
| China Foreign Affairs University |
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Abstract It takes some ten years for China and the US to realize the normalization of relations, from initiation to rapprochement. Though faced with common external security threats and shared strategic interests, why does it take such a long time for the two countries to finally establish formal diplomatic relations? In fact, merely the common interests shared by China and the US are not enough. To realize the normalization of relations, the two countries have to change the negative recognition towards each other, and such a change could only be made in relational interaction at the diplomatic level. The article explores the China-US relational interactions from the perspective of the relational theory of world politics, proposing that normalization is a dynamic process through which the country adjusts its self-identity towards the collective identity featured with the shared goal for establishing diplomatic relations, while the relational interactions provide the driving force behind. Since the rapprochement between China and the US, the two countries have been on the way of bilateral relational interactions towards normalization, whereby the US self-identity started to evolve towards the shared goal of establishing diplomatic relations. In late Nixon's presidency, the whole Ford's presidency and Carter's early presidency, the bilateral relational interactions went through twists and turns, and the overall US self-identity adjustment gradually diverged from the shared goal. However, in the later period of Carter's presidency, the bilateral relational interactions deepened, and the US self-identity evolved quickly from divergence towards the normalization of relations. A discussion of the relational interactions is conducive to China and the US to have a better appreciation of each other, change their mindset, avoid misjudgment, and provide the positive driving force for bilateral ties in the new era.
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