Views on the Eisenhower Administration's foreign policy have dramatically changed in a decade. In the field of the Sino-American relationship, many scholars explored voluminous materials and revealed that Eisenhower-Dulles's China policy was, contrary to our common understanding, not so obstinate or stubborn. Such scholars are now called the Eisenhower revisionists.
The Eisenhower revisionists indicate various facts which exemplify the administration's flexibility on its China policy. Their remarks can be summarized into two points: despite the Korean War or the Taiwan Strait Crisis, Dulles continued to pursue the Sino-Soviet split: Dulles also tried to work out the “Two China” formula and even conceived of Beijing's entrance into the United Nations. However, the Eisenhower revisionists do not succeed in explaining why the U. S. -Chinese relationship was not improved during this period, which is the major problem of their arguments.
The revisionists tend to regard the Sino-Soviet split as premise of the Sino-American accommodation, which seems somewhat naive. If the Sino-American relationship was a dependent variable of the U. S. -Soviet relations, the Sino-Soviet split may cause the Sino-American rapprochement, but this was not true. The relationship between the Sino-Soviet split and the Sino-American accommodation is not so self explanatory as the revisionists' assumption. Therefore, we cannot conclude that Dulles had a flexible policy on China, because he had a sophisticated view on the Sino-Soviet relations.
The other problem is that Dulles might consider some sort of the “Two China” formula, but he never thought of this scheme as a means of negotiation. His basic China policy remained to keep the maximum pressure on China in order to change its course. Once he said, “the U. S. could possibly recognize Communist China at some future time, but as long as Communist China is so bitterly hostile to us, we do not want to enhance its prestige”. Even if he had such a novel idea as the “Two China” policy in mind, the circumstances did not allow him to carry it out.
After the Geneva Conference of 1954, China enhanced its position in international society, especially in Asia. In this situation, the United States feared not only the expansion of communism but also the spreading of anti-Western sentiment in Asia. The U. S. thought China could strengthen this feeling through its anti-impelialist rhetoric. China became a regional threat to the U. S., which was, to some extent, independent of the Soviet or the communist threat. This was one of the main reasons why the U. S. -Cheinese relationship remained hostile, while detente between the U. S. and the U. S. S. R. was in progress.

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