| Summary/Abstract |
U.S. policy toward China since the end of the Cold War has been premised on the assumption that expanding trade and investment would have beneficial effects beyond promoting economic growth, both on that country's external behavior and on the evolution of its domestic economic and political institutions. China's deepening relationship with the United States and its broader integration into the global economy would, it was hoped, give Beijing a strong interest in stability and encourage it to see itself as a “responsible stakeholder” in the existing international system. In this view, as China developed, it would move away from state-directed economic planning and place greater reliance on market mechanisms. In the long run, growth would create a new middle class and with it would come irresistible pressures for political liberalization.
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