The Three Images of Sino-U.S. Relations

In the early 1950s, Kenneth W. Waltz's book Man, State and War laid the cornerstone for a new branch of international relations theory called the Level of Analysis. The author of this paper believes that Sino-U.S. relations can be studied in a similar multi-dimensional way. Among Waltz's three images, the world strategic structure, i.e. the international image, has been the most decisive factor in the development of Sino-U.S. relations over most of the past 40 years.