CONCEPTUAL FUNDAMENTALS OF THE US POLICY TOWARDS CHINA AT THE CURRENT STAGE

Abstract

One of the key issues of international politics in the first decade of the XXI century are the  US-China relations that are gradually evolving from a comprehensive partnership to a sharp antagonism. Despite Beijing's assurances that the country's foreign policy has a purely peaceful goals, the United States are concerned about the rapid development of Beijing's economic and military power, which has already spread beyond the Asian region and now affects the vast majority countries' foreign policy directly or indirectly. The economic confrontation between Beijing and Washington at the present state of relations has already grew into a trade war. The nuclear status of both participants of this confrontation, the antagonism in both the economic and the political spheres becomes a real threat to security not only in the Asia-Pacific region, but within the whole world. China's emergence as a new center of power coincided with the strategic "return of the United States to Asia" under the Obama administration and Trump's "Make America Great Again" policy, both of which were intended to curb China's growing power. In turn, Beijing is using its economic power to prevent the formation of an anti-Chinese coalition under the auspices of Washington in the immediate vicinity of its borders. The probability of escalation of the crisis, which is currently in a frozen state, has actualized the search for ways to solve the main security issues in both theoretical and practical terms. Today, the issue of US-China relations is in the focus not only of academia, but also of among the representatives of the highest political circles in almost every country in the world. This interest is conditioned by a variety of factors: for the United States, it is a critical issue in the context of remaining a world hegemon; for China – the opportunity to project its economic power on the political dimension and solve critical problems of its own foreign policy in the status of a new world hegemon.