American Business and Normalization of US-China Commercial Relations, 1979-1980

Abstract

Building a strategic alignment against the Soviet Union was in the late 1960s the driving force behind Sino-American rapprochement. In 1978 Cold War politics prompted the Carter administration to recognize the People’s Republic. In 1979-80 military and strategic cooperation dominated Sino-Amthcan relations; economic and cultural ties were secondary. Yet growing trade and cultural exchanges were useful means for broadening the basis of the relationship and generating a perception of progress.