What to Read

By I.U. Faculty

China Cross Talk: The American Debate over China Policy since Normalization

Edited by Scott Kennedy
(Rowman & Littlefield, 2003)

Scott Kennedy's new book addresses the issue of American policy toward China, the world's most populous nation and a growing economic superpower. The book relates not just to foreign policy, but to matters of trade and culture as well. Across the past quarter-century, U.S.-China relations have consumed myriad reams of paper in public discourse, occupying some of the best minds in American public and private life. Now, in a new century and millennium, the issue is even more critical.

The problem is that the U.S. is the world's largest economic power and the only global superpower. As Chalmers Johnson and others note, we stand at the head of a neo-imperialist crusade that seeks "a new world order," to keep the peace and promote prosperity. China 's prominence on both counts —economic as well as security—has risen spectacularly of late, putting it potentially in the way of the aims of others. Every world issue has implications for China; it's important to look at how America views issues such as Chinese treatment of minorities and how China handles human rights and dissent within its own borders. How have we approached the China problem since 1978? Do we favor mutual gain, or do we tend to be wary of Chinese ambitions? These are the questions that animate this most useful book.

A collection of opinions put forward during the policy debates of the past 25 years, China Cross Talk reveals the tensions that accompanied what was obviously a hazardous course of reestablishing relations with the People's Republic of China after the long Cold War divide from 1949 to 1970. There is a sort of theatrical character to the debates, as old arguments recycle and the contestants vie for favor. Plenty of venom shows up in these pages alongside the cautious, cold, measured thought that appears here. Policy choices vary sharply. Experts disagree, sometimes vehemently. As editor Kennedy says in his well-crafted introduction, "Consider China Cross Talk your ticket to a restaging of the debate's most memorable scenes. Enjoy the show" (p. xxvii). And a vibrant and colorful show it is!

The book includes newspaper columns, political cartoons, testimony before Congress, and many other primary sources that give life to the China debate since 1978. We pass from Jimmy Carter's idealism to Bill Clinton's realism and on to the current Bush years when China evolved into a source of support for American policy aims in Korea and the rest of Northeast Asia. This is a rich smorgasbord, allowing students to review the contested history of recent U.S. relations with China.

Two quibbles. Historians will be pleased to see the materials in this book organized along chronological lines, showing how the China debate has developed over the years. It would help if thematic divisions were plainer. What are the chief themes involving the United States and China? How do different American speakers divide by theme? Second, why start with the late 1970s? The early '70s, when Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger turned China from an international pariah into America's newest darling in the era of ping-pong diplomacy, deserve more attention than they get here. But the book is a valuable endeavor for both teachers and students, one that will prove useful in current policy debates as well as in the classroom. Reviewed by George M. Wilson, Professor Emeritus, Indiana University.

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