With apologies to nostalgic cold war views about Russia, or unmet dreams of a united Europe with a single foreign policy, the world’s most important bilateral relationship is the one between the US and China. For that relationship to succeed, it must be embedded in a larger framework of US diplomacy in Asia, stretching from Japan to India, but certainly the US-China piece will be central for the 21st century. With new leadership in Beijing under President Xi Jinping settling in and President Barack Obama starting his second term, this is a defining period for the future of US-China relations. Both countries have challenging domestic agendas, but Washington and Beijing fully recognise the importance of their international interactions.
世人帶著遺憾告別了令人懷舊的有關俄羅斯的冷戰觀點，也告別了歐洲各國團結一致、實行單一外交政策這一未能成真的夢想。如今，美中關系是全球最重要的雙邊關系。這一關系如要取得成功，就必須被嵌入美國亞洲外交從日本到印度的大框架，但毫無疑問，美中關系將是21世紀的關鍵。隨著中國迎來以習近平為首的新一屆領導層，隨著巴拉克?奧巴馬(Barack Obama)開始第二個總統任期，當前對美中關系的未來具有決定性意義。雖然兩國均面臨棘手的國內議程，但華盛頓和北京方面都充分認識到雙方國際互動的重要性。