Re-Assessing U.S.-China Policy

Same Bed, Different Dreams, by David Lampton. Berkely, CA: University of California Press, 2001. 485 pp. $35.

David M. Lampton adds another volume to the discourse on U.S.- China relations in the latter half of the twentieth century with Same Bed Different Dreams: Managing U.S.-China Relations 1989-2000, completing an informal trilogy which includes James Mann's About Face: A History of America's Curious Relationship with China, from Nixon to Clinton (1998) and Patrick Tyler's A Great Wall: Six Presidents and China (1999). Even before former U.S. President Richard Nixon visited China in 1972, the long-range U.S. policy objective for he Asian country had been, according to Lampton, "to bring China into the family of nations, thereby promoting behavior compatible with U.S. interests." The author carries the dialogue on U.S. policy toward China through to the present, adding new perspective to an often-ambiguous relationship. Today, when policymakers continue to struggle with defining U.S. interests in China, Lampton's discussion is particularly significant and relevant. Throughout 1999 and early 2000, the U.S. Congress deliberated whether to grant Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) to China, a debate notable for the overwhelming affirmative vote in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. It is clear that the United States no longer sees China only as a challenge to global security and an ideological adversary. However, the complex issues between the two countries demand a closer look at the evolving U.S.-China relationship, which Lampton provides.

Lampton's insights stem from three decades of experience as a scholar, researcher, teacher, commentator, and policy advisor who has rubbed shoulders with key policymakers in both countries. Lampton extends Tyler's and Mann's analyses and gives equal weight to U.S. and Chinese global interests. He also examines the past century and a half of domestic politics and bilateral interaction, untangling the confusing and chaotic relationship between the two countries.

Same Bed, Different Dreams offers three visions for the future of U.S. policy toward China--the two extremes of a "broadly cooperative" relationship and a "broadly conflictual" one, and a "mixed" relationship like that generally preferred by policymakers. Unfortunately, even the "mixed" relationship leaves us with "continual friction between the two nations...[a] state of affairs [that] is unlikely to fundamentally change for the better in the years ahead." On a more positive note, Lampton lays down guidelines for the United States to help manage the bilateral U.S.-China relationship in the coming years and to minimize friction, while still allowing the United States to pursue its interests in areas such as non-proliferation, the Korean Peninsula, Taiwan, and the Indian sub-continent.

Lampton points out that, "[d]uring the 1990s, the Sino-American economic relationship provided the essential glue that held the countries together." Over the last decade, "moving from a security-centered to an economics-centered relationship with Beijing put the relationship more substantially into the congressional domain." Nevertheless, more attention must be paid to integrating U.S. interests, including concern for Taiwan's security, economic interest in maintaining China as a major trading partner, and a moral obligation to uphold human rights, into a coherent and sustainable policy.

China is not the only country where U.S. policymakers try to balance security, economic, and moral goals. However, the country's size, location, and history create tensions that generally do not arise with other naitons. The challenges facing the United States over the coming decade with regard to China include preventing armed conflict with Taiwan, fostering Chinese cooperation in maintaining stability in Asia, integrating China into the regional and world economy, and encouraging development of the rule of law and responsible government.

The guideline prescribed by Lampton that is likely to receive the most support from U.S. policymakers is to "set achievable goals," in contrast to setting unattainable "stretch goals," like those businesses commonly employ to push employees to work...