美國是第一個將人權標準放到外交政策中的國家，然而與中國建交以來，人權卻從不是雙方關係的重點。多數學者認為天安門事件是美中雙方在人權議題上產生衝突的轉折點，中國的人權問題造成了美國的府會爭議，在國會的壓力下，老布希與柯林頓政府對中國的人權外交政策各有何轉變是本文分析的重點。 本篇論文研究老布希與柯林頓政府時期的美國人權外交政策，以美中關係為例。以國際人權標準與美國的人權外交發展歷史為架構，探討美國與中國在天安門事件後，對於是否給予中共最惠國待遇的異議，布希政府選擇了與國會對立；柯林頓政府則巧妙運用政策，化解了府會爭議。在中國南斯拉夫大使館誤炸事件中，儘管北京最初態度強硬，但在贏得國際社會的同情與華府的道歉之後，中共隨即與美國和解。雖然中美兩國因為人權議題發生衝突，似乎也讓兩國更瞭解彼此對人權的定義以及願意為人權衝突付出的代價。 隨著中共在國際社會上對人權議題態度越來越強勢，美中兩國對於人權的認知差異，美國未來將要如何填補對中國人權外交政策的真空，是美中兩國在經濟與軍事密切合作後，所需面對兩國關係最脆弱的環節。 United States is the first State with human rights standard in the foreign policy. However, the subject of human rights actually was not a key point in the U.S.-China relations before the Tiananmen Incident. Most of scholars thought the Tiananmen Incident was the beginning for Sino-American conflict in the human rights subject. The issue of China''s human rights causes the friction between the Executive and Congress. I attempt to analyze the transformation of foreign policy toward China under Congress''s pressure between the Bush (George H. W. Bush) and the Clinton administration in this article. American human rights foreign policy during the Bush and the Clinton government period is researched in this thesis, and take the U.S.-China relations as the example. Take the international human rights standard and the history of American human rights diplomacy as a construction to analyze Sino-American relations after the Tiananmen Incident. Regarding the objection on the Most Favored Nation Status to China , the Bush government chose disagreement with Congress; The Clinton government then ingeniously utilizes the policy, melted the friction between the Executive and Congress. In the event that explodes in the Chinese Yugoslavia Embassy, although Beijing initial manner is strong, after wins the sympathy of the international society and the apology of Washington, China reconciles immediately with U.S. China and U.S. have the conflict on the human rights subject, but they understand each other about the human rights definition as well as the cost for the human rights conflict. As China is more important than before in the international society on human rights subject, faced with the different cognition on human rights between U.S. and China, how U.S. is going to fill the vacuum on human rights foreign policy toward China will be the main issue after the economy and the military cooperation.
