Columbia International Affairs Online: Policy Briefs

CIAO DATE: 05/2010

China and the United States

John H. Makin

December 2009

American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research

Abstract

A new truth of geopolitics has emerged during 2009. It is that the complex and rapidly evolving Sino-American relationship has become the most important bilateral relationship either country has. To this observation, made recently by William C. McCahill Jr. in the November 13 special issue of The China Report, must be added another claim: the course of the Sino-American relationship in both the economic and the political spheres will play a growing role in determining the levels of global economic and geopolitical stability. Trips like President Barack Obama's three-day visit to Shanghai and Beijing November 15-17 will probably be made with increasing frequency in coming years.