For the last two decades and more, China has been a constantly rising power, but the U.S. policy toward China has shown fluctuations. What we need is a theoretical framework to understand the variation against a constant rise of another great power. Two variables are added: (1) America’s strategic priority and (2) attitude toward globalization. The Bush and the Obama administrations were positive over globalization, but they differed in the strategic priority. The Trump administration prioritized the Chinese threat on the top of agenda, while it was hostile toward globalization. The Biden administration is not positive with globalization, but it might be distracted out of China in strategic priority due to Russia’s war in Ukraine. Washington would present a series of issues for Korea in trade and investment for anti-globalization as well as its policy toward North Korea for strategic distraction.