Toward a History of Chinese Communist Foreign Relations, 1920s-1960s: Personalities and Interpretive Approaches (review)

Reviews 441© 1996 by University ofHawai'i Press these strands. But might there not have been other available routes to something like science as we now have it? Mary Tiles University ofHawai'i Mary Tiles is a professor in the Department ofPhilosphy who is interested in the history andphilosophy ofscience, mathematics, technology and culture. mm Michael H. Hunt and Niu Jun. Toward a History ofChinese Communist Foreign Relations, 1920S-1960S: Personalities and InterpretiveApproaches. Washington, D.C.: Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Asia Program, 1995. xvi, 194 pp. Paperback. It is really very encouraging to read that both Chinese and Western academicians are reexamining and rethinking the foreign relations ofthe Chinese Communist Party from the 1920s to the 1960s. All ofthis is taking place in the light ofnew documents now available in the People's Republic of China and ofnewer, fresher, and more natural interpretations by researchers concerned with the events of those decades. This book is a compilation of seven papers presented at an international conference organized by the Wilson Center's Asia Program, "The CCP's Approach to the Outside World from the 1920s into die 1960's," held in Washington, D.C., 7-9 July 1992. These papers are organized in two parts. In the first, we find papers written by Chinese authors, including Niu Jun, He Di, Zhang Baijia, and Chen Xiaolu, on the leaders who participated in the foreign policy decision-making process during the period under discussion. In the second, Odd Arne Westad, Jürgen Osterhammel, and Michael Hunt examine the state ofaffairs ofthis very theme and the need to evaluate it in a different way, taking the historical and comparative methods into account. In the first part, Niu Jun discusses Mao Zedong's thought on international affairs from his youth to die foundation ofthe People's Republic of China. He Di draws attention to Mao's perceptions ofthe United States, emphasizing the importance ofhis educational formation as well as his personal life experiences. On these matters, He Di notes that Mao never had any contact with Western political philosophy or the Western way oflife. Zhang Baijia discusses the evolution of Zhou Enlai's diplomatic and political thinking during the 1940s and 1950s, and he 442 China Review International: Vol. 3, No. 2, Fall 1996 analyzes as well the making of foreign policy during the first years ofthe PRC. Zhang stresses the importance of Zhou's personality, especially in the international arena. Chen Xiaolu explains the foreign policy of China during the 1960s and the role and influence of Chen Yi in the foreign policy decision-making process . In sum, in the first part, Chinese authors take advantage ofthe availability of new materials to show unknown aspects of the personalities of China's leaders and also to clarify foreign policy decisions. In the second part, Odd Arne Westad, Jürgen Osterhammel, and Michael Hunt attempt to assess die state of the field and the need to rethink older accounts and assumptions. Westad analyzes the revolutionary foreign policy of China by using a comparative approach and taking into account the ideological and organizational aspects of foreign policy decisions. He insists on the necessity of making interpretations based on new materials recentiy available. He also remarks on the need to avoid the mere presentation of facts and figures on the development of CCP foreign policy. Jürgen Osterhammel discusses the importance of devising "new and quite provisional frameworks of issues, terms, concepts, and hypotheses" (p. 134) that may provide a context in which to form new interpretations of CCP foreign policy. He suggests that researchers should take advantage of the abundance of raw data and at the same time should try to reformulate their theoretical structures . Osterhammel celebrates the entry of Chinese scholars into the field and adds that "they will not be confined to doing the empirical groundwork for Western master historians" (p. 129). On this, I agree. Chinese scholars are able to offer innovative interpretations if they are in a satisfactory intellectual environment. Michael Hunt makes the important contribution of drawing attention to interpretative issues in the history of CCP foreign relations by taking into consideration the role of ideology in CCP policies, the...