Prospects for U.S. Foreign Policy and Sino-U.S. Relations Following Obama's Re-election

2012 was an important year in the history of both China and the United States, as this was an election year in the U.S., and the collective leadership of the CPC Central Committee was renewed. Barack Obama successfully won another victory in the U.S. presidential election. Immediately following his re-election, the Chinese Communist Party held its Eighteenth Party Congress and a new generation of the CPC central collective leadership was elected. In the context of the continued impact of the global financial crisis and significant changes in the international political and economic configuration, Sino-U.S. relations are set to face many new opportunities and challenges over the next four years. In this situation, it will be very significant and in fact urgent to explore Obama＇s new Asia-Pacific strategy and the future trend of Sino-U.S. relations, as well as to analyze the new political structure of China-U.S. relations and to explore how to build stable Sino-U.S. relations.

The focus of Obama's second term diplomacy will continue to be the acceleration of the U.S. global strategic shift eastward to Asia. With increasing competition and more competitive factors emerging over the next four years, the existing competitive and cooperative political structure in Sino-U.S. relations should continue to help keep bilateral political relations stable.