US Relations With China the Worst Since Nixon’s 1972 Visit

choi

Simon Denyer, China’s Rise and Asian Tensions Send US Relations Into Downward Spiral. Washington Post, July 7, 2014 (front page).
www.washingtonpost.com/world/asi ... 099f04ed_story.html

Quote:

"'US-China relations are worse than they have been since the normalization of relations, and East Asia today is less stable than at any time since the end of the Cold War,' said Robert Ross, a political science professor at Boston College and associate of Harvard’s John King Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies.

"Whatever the reason, China’s rise has left the United States caught between its commitments to allies and its desire to maintain a constructive relationship with China. In recent months, it has seemed to emphasize the former, sending B-52 bombers to fly through China’s air defense zone and threatening to reevaluate its military posture in Asia if China extends the air defense zone to the South China Sea.

"foreign policy experts agree on this: that the relationship [between China and US] deserves much more attention [in US] than it is getting. Kerry is widely seen as more interested in the Middle East, while national security adviser Susan E Rice has yet to visit Beijing, leaving China policy without a sufficiently senior voice in Washington. Meanwhile, Obama’s refusal to come to China for a return version of last year’s Sunnylands summit with Xi has also 'personally irritated' his Chinese counterpart, said [Christopher] Johnson [of the Center for Strategic and International Studies and CIA’s former top China analyst]  — although he is scheduled to visit Beijing for an Asia Pacific summit [Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC)] in November.

My comment:
(a) The title above may not be clear as to with whom US relationship deteriorates. However, the lede in the home page (prominently displayed at the top) is unambiguous:

"[title:] US ties fray as China, neighbors play ‘chicken’
Simon Denyer
[summary:] Some say the U.S.-China relationship is facing its stiffest test since President Nixon traveled to China in 1972."

* lede
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/lede
(b) This article is lengthy, and talks about a lot of what we are familiar with (but maybe not to ordinary Americans). Quotation is the essence, and you may not want to read the rest.