China as a Cause of Transatlantic Tension and Cooperation

U.S. and European relations with China have been seldom smooth and harmonious. But rivalry and competition have also characterized the transatlantic allies’ very different approach of how to deal with China, not least in the political and economic sphere. China, of course, contributed to the resulting tension by doing its best to drive a wedge between the allies.

Klaus Larres’s research project analyzes the U.S. and European—in particular the German—approach to China from the Tiananmen massacre in 1989 and the end of the Cold War to the present war in Ukraine. During these years, China was a cause of both intense friction and, not least since recently, much transatlantic cooperation. But will this at present broadly cooperative transatlantic approach toward China become a long-lasting feature of transatlantic and in particular German-American relations?

Supported by the DAAD with funds from the Federal Foreign Office.