A Brief History of US-China Relationship

The love-hate relationship between US and China seems dated from the first time the two learned each other's name. Here's a brief and broadstroke run-down in case you're not familiar with this perpetual schizophrenic tango:

1. US participated in the Opium War, but then turned the money forced out the Qing Dynasty around and set up the first modern universities and hospitals in China.

2. The two were allies during both WWI and WWII, with China under the KMT government. But it's no secret that US government really disliked the KMT government during WWII -- the corruption, the lack of determination and resolve (mostly due to the politiking among some senior officials and generals), the incompetence (poor training).

3. After the communist took over power in China, the two countries managed to fight two wars without declaring war: Korea and Vietnam. Then none other than Nixon and Mao, both having presided over the Vietnam war, defrosted the diplomatic relationship between two ideological archenemies. In retrospect, all of the drama were nothing more than Cold War maneuvering and had little to do with ideology...well, except the ideology of pragmatism.

4. The opening and reform kickstarted by Deng Xiaoping quickly began a honeymoon between US and China. Throughout the 1980's, aspiring Chinese college students, intellectuals, artists, scientists genuinely admired US, while much of America held high hope for China as the first large defector from the communist bloc. Then, Deng killed the honeymoon with Tiananmen Massacre of 6/4, 1989. I was in the US to witness the outpouring of emotion -- condemnation against the massacre and support for the students -- of American people on the news of massacre. It was nothing short of remarkable and deeply moving. It may have been unprecedented in the US as so many Joe and Jane Schmoes, who thought Canada is another state, would go on the streets to protest and donate money for something happening half way around the globe.

5. The massacre not only turned the US public opinion decisively and irrevocably (at least so far) against the Chinese government, it also ended, in retrospect, the pro-US force in China. The public sentiment in China has grown more and more nationalistic. Relatively minor "accidents" such as the US bombing of Chinese embassy in Belgrade and the collision between a Chinese fighter jet and a US reconnaissance plane over South China Sea didn't exactly help the matter.

6. Currently, areas where US and China share interests, at least officially, include anti-terrorism, North Korea, and commerce. Areas where they have competing interests: everything else. Or so it seems.

And the schizophrenic tango will only get more messy, and dangerous, going forward.

(Gotta go to work now damnit...)

(Instead of a series with the same title, I decided it'd make more sense to break it into several titles/threads to keep it manageable and maintain the dialogue/running flavor. Please feel free to critique. I'm quite open to persuation.)