自1979年中美關條正常化以來，迄今已歷經30年。中方對「逢十」的紀念日不是嚴加警惕便是大書特書。當此中美關條居於歷史上較好時期，北京必將深入總結經驗教訓，以謀未來。中美關靜、對我國生存與發展亦是重中之重，台灣國關研究者自亦當本諸原有的理論訓練優勢，提出本身的觀點，以推動有關的理論與政策研究之進展。本文嘗試從「身份」與「位置」兩組核心概念出發，藉助從中共建政之歷史與理念所沉澱建構出的數個中國外交類型(ideal types) ，詮釋並說明三十年來中國的對美政策與中美關條。這三個基礎類型分別是「國際體牟平衡者」、「國際社會負責者」與「國際現狀挑戰者」。本文展望後布希時期的中美關條認為，由於中美物質實力所規定的相對結構性「位置」差距仍大，而中方雖有「挑戰者」的身份血釀，卻仍難以超越「位置」的限制。中美未來的「位置」與「身份」競爭仍將以互利合作為主調。但對個案性的危機的管理，則是兩國關像是否能穩定的關鍵。

This article reviews Sino-American relations in the last three decades
since the two countries normalized their diplomatic ties. The authors conduct the analysis by building a specially tailored framework of ideal types inspired by the German sociologist， Max Weber. Three ideal types of roles of foreign policy are employed to comparatively evaluate China; foreign relations and its US policy: balancer， responsible stakeholder， and revolutionary revisionist. The key components of these types include specific position in the international system and identity in the international community. Itfound the earliest ten years (1980s)of China's foreign policy can be best portrayed as “balancer，\"while mid and late 1990s saw China's“responsible stakeholder' vi vid during its “greatpower diplomacy' reached its peak. As China's economy kept growing fast and the US was hit by the Iraq-Afghan war as well as economy recession， China gradually adopted a“soft balancing" approach towards Washington. Itis still too early to say China is to oppose the US hegemony revolutionarily， but it does embrace a degree of ambition to revision the rules of the game guarded by the US and the West as a whole.