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Closer to the U.S. and Further from the Soviet Union: The Strategic Foundation of China’s Policy vis-à-vis the U.S. in the 1980s

Published:2018-06-14 Published:2018-06-14   Author:Fan Chao   [Small] [Middle] [Big] [More]

In the 1980s, China decided on a foreign policy strategy of furthering its modernization through stabilizing and developing China-U.S. relations. Due to its lack of foreign policy leverage, China designed a “reverse signaling” tactic based on the notion of exchange of interests, i.e., to increase the strategic distance from the U.S. in order to highlight China’s strategic value to the U.S. and stimulate the latter to conduct a more proactive China policy. The U.S. did develop relations with China more proactively to rebuild or even maintain the China-U.S. strategic relationship. In order to guarantee the success of the “reverse signaling” tactic, China decided that China-U.S. relations took precedence over China-Soviet relations. At the end of 1983, China decided to cease putting further pressure on the U.S. and realized mutual visits by top leaders of both countries. Meanwhile, China also tightly controlled the process of rapprochement with the Soviet Union and clarified its strategic intentions and sincerity to the U.S. In early 1986, China gave up a plan to accelerate the rapprochement with the Soviet Union. Historical evidence indicates that he “reverse signaling” tactic benefited from the decision-makers’ strategic focus and their grasp of the nature of diplomacy and it secured the China-U.S. honeymoon period in the 1980s.

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