Confrontation with the United States } 633
realization would contribute to a push in both capitals to reconstruct a more
cooperative relationship.
The confrontation had a strong impact, both positive and negative, on PRC
relations with the United States. On the one hand, it forced US leaders to think
through the costs of confrontation with China. Even short of war, what would
be the cost to the United States if China viewed the United States as a hostile
power and opposed US moves around the world? Thinking through these
issues helped push the United States toward a renewal of the quest for stra-
tegic partnership with China, a quest that had lapsed with the presidency of
George W.H. Bush. On the negative side, the 1995–1996 confrontation alerted
US leaders to the fact that China might well become a strategic competitor
with the United States. There existed, in fact, deep differences in national in-
terest and policy that could lead China to confront the United States mili-
tarily. A US desire to guard against this possibility would thereafter parallel
the US quest for strategic partnership with China. Rather like the Korean
War, the 1995–1996 confrontation forced the United States to recognize and
respect China’s great power. But the cost of that achievement was great.