The Roots of a Globalized Relationship: Western Knowledge of the Chinese Economy and US–China Relations in the Long 1970s

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the economic dimension of Sino-American relations during the Long 1970s. It draws heavily on economics as an important tool to reach a fuller understanding of this crucial decade in US–PRC relations. It focuses on how American Sinologists used their economic knowledge during the 1972 rapprochement and the years that followed. It reveals that behind the scenes of high-level diplomacy, academics, economists, and business community members actively tried to shape US China policies. This group believed that China had the potential and need to undergo significant economic transformation. At the heart of this outlook lay growing awareness and conviction, the result of increased contacts and research, that the United States could and should play a major role in helping the PRC attain economic modernization that would, in turn, bring China’s full reintegration into the international economic system, a development that would benefit the United States.