Beautiful Imperialist: China Perceives America, 1972-1990, and: China and Japan in the Global Setting (review)

190 SAIS Review WINTER-SPRING 1994 infrastructure problems thatwould have prompted the building ofdie Trans-Siberian railroad, had that decision been truly economic in nature. This book makes few, if any, references to contemporary history, though it anticipates recent events, giving the reader an eerie sense that Russian history, in particular, is prone to repeating itself. For instance, the concerns of the Siberian regionalists over the construction of the Trans-Siberian in the late 1800s closely parallel Siberians' fears today. They are exasperated with die continued preeminence of non-Siberian interests in every decision made concerning die region. They are afraid that tying the region more closely to Moscow will only perpetuate the center's political and economic stranglehold. In short, Marks' work is most timely. At the turn ofdie century, the Siberian "Road to Power" was seen through a purely political prism. Now die end ofthe Cold War and die dawn ofa new century have redefined just what constitutes "power". Siberia and its exploitation may indeed be the road to economic prosperity, which lies at the root ofpower today. As the Pacific Rim region becomes.more and more economically integrated, and with Siberia and die Far East holding tremendous potential as emerging markets, it will become ever more important to understand the region, its historical experiences and economic legacy. Beautiful Imperialist: China Perceives America, 1972-1990. By David Shambaugh. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1991. 326 pp. $39.50/Hardback, $16.95/Softcover. China and Japan in the Global Setting. By Akira Iriye. Cambridge, MA: Hatvard University Press, 1992. 156 pp. $22.50/Hardback. Reviewed by Matthew Flynn. Mr. Flynn holds a BA from the University of Vermont and is an MA candidate at SAIS. The end of the Cold War has generated considerable debate about the appropriate pradigm in which to organize the images of the new world disorder. Unfortunately, such inquiries often use American fears or wishful thinking as a point ofdeparture. As the United States turns its gaze towards the Asia Pacific region and considers how to construct "a new Pacific Community," Beautiful Imperialist: China Perceives America, 1972-1990 by David Shambaugh and China and Japan in the Global Setting by Akira Iriye are invaluable aids to understanding the dynamics ofthis new center of political and economic power. These studies are unique because they move away from the question of.how die United States perceives China and Japan. Instead, Shambaugh and Iriye focus on some of the salient issues in Japan and China's foreign relations. By considering the power, cultural and economic aspects of international relations, Iriye, the director of Japanese Studies at Harvard, presents a periodization that sets Sino-Japanese relations in a new light. After the Meiji resoration in Japan and the Opium Wars in China, the most important question for both countries was BOOK REVIEWS 191 how to achieve the power diat Western nations possessed. During this era in which power was paramount, Japan strengthened itself by building industries with the reparations it received after China's defeat in the Sino-Japanese Wat (1894-5). The unequal treaties that Japan negotiated also kept China's tariffs low and thus created a matket for Japan's exports. As he has long argued, Iriye dien discusses how Sino-Japanese relations bewteen World Wars I and II are best understood in economic and cultural terms rather than purely military ones. As economic matters deteriorated, culture became the salient feature ofinternational relations, and fot die Japanese, war became a way of restructuring society and redefining culture. Iriyedoes not discount the importance of land, power and resource accumulation as an explanation forJapanese expansionism, but instead atgues diat culture was the key element that sparked the untenable war on the continent. Not culture in the sense ofinherent aggressiveness, but rather die desire to harmonize all five races of Northeast Asia: Han, Mongol, Manchu, Korean and Japanese. With the apparent failure ofliberalism and capitalism, Japan's sacred war was launched to purge Asia of die West and create a new cultural consciousness in Asia. China responded to Japan's aggression by championing Western values of personal emancipation and unity in opposition to tyranny. It was in response to the...