서강대학교

초록/요약

It is acknowledged that Sino-US relationship is experiencing a series of challenges since the new millennium. This thesis seeks a more appropriate definition of the current situation in which the two great powers interact as well as confront each other. As part of the effort, the Chinese high-profile proposal “New Type of Major-Country Relations” seems to have a disproportionate response from its counterpart. There are many materialistic concerns behind the American reluctance to fully accept the proposed idea, but the idea characterized with peaceful factors at first should not be regarded as a doomed failure, but a key transition point as it is already publicly claimed. The existing contradiction between the two great powers results in the limitation of Sino-America strategic cooperation, so practically speaking, why was the proposal to be spoken at the first place? How was it accepted? And how would it impact on existing understandings of their relationship? The objective of this paper is to engage with three levels of analysis--individual, state and system--and assess the commons and differences between the two great powers on the issue. It will be examined that both Chinese enthusiasm for a “new type” of relationship and American cynicism to cast doubt on it, are not only behaviors guided by materialistic calculations, but a convergence of different effects from all three levels of factors. The time scale is contemporary but it is proved that both of them have their own traceable self-images since they once formed. The most important rationale that determined countries’ decision-making will be laid out, demonstrating that China’s intention as an initiator had moved beyond self-help, and America’s apprehension is also not only because of the perennial distrust. Only by mutual effort and creative approach can the claimed idea nurture forward-looking strategies for both sides to work out problems in their cooperative missions on the basis of what they have achieved to date.