Question 5, March 12, 2010

'No great realignment.' What evidence is there contained in all of the sources A-C that the changes in the relations between the USA and PRC in 1971 were less fundamental than sometimes assumed?'

In sources A through C it is clear that the US-Sino relations in the early 1970's underwent no major fundamental changes, but there was a general warming in the relations between the countries.

American policies towards Chinese ideology remained primarily the same accoring to source A. The US still did not accept communism. US still refused to accpet China's hegemany of Asia.
Source C (i) and (iii): Expresses the suspicion held by the Soviet Union that the US has realized that Communist China's power will be more beneficial to them than that of the Soviet Union, and also the secrecy that the US and China developed relations with.
In source B it states that the Us would allow the PRC to enter the UN, but they could not be deprived of any representation becuase the US feared that they would need to use force against China, which in turn would ruin the relations. The US felt it better to leave the governments as they were, both mutual respect for each other but were completely different in social systems.

Source C(i) states that the Soviet Union sees the People's Republic of China as the rightful representatives of the country on an international level, such as in the United Nations, into which the US had allowed admittance of China. The relations between the US and China have improved enough that the US had begun to accept that the situation in China was not going to change, but these are signs that the tensions were being eased and there were no real reasonss for concern like it may have been assumed. However, the relationships between China and Russia might not have been too terrible. When China joined the UN, it would bring mutual understanding and peace bwtween people.