Embattled Glory: Veterans, Military Families, and the Politics of Patriotism in China, 1949-2007 by Neil Jeffrey Diamant (review)

Will virulent nationalism make China a threat to the international order? This is the question that Neil J. Diamant sets out to address in Embattled Glory. A number of academics as well as the mass media have argued that after 1989 the Chinese Communist Party purposely fostered a wide-spread and strongly-felt popular nationalism, and that this sense of nationalism pushes Chinese foreign policy toward more hard-line positions that could lead to diplomatic or even military conflict between China, its neighbors, and even the United States. Diamant points specifically to Peter Gries' China's New Nationalism: Pride, Politics and Diplomacy as an example of this approach. But where, asks Diamant, is the evidence for deep, broadly-held feelings of "patriotism" or "nationalism" (Diamant uses these terms interchangeably) on a truly popular level, beyond the "relatively small cohort" of extremely vocal "urban writers and elites" that Gries focuses on? (p. 19) Diamant's study of the treatment of veterans and military families from 1949 to 2007 suggests that popular nationalism is in fact very weak: that in China "nationalism and patriotism are rather cheap sentiments of the bumper sticker and American flag lapel variety, and, notwithstanding all the hoopla surrounding this topic, the world should not have to worry too much about the threat it poses to the rest of the world" (p. 415). Diamant's book, although painstakingly researched, engaging, thought-provoking and even moving, falls somewhat short of proving his point.

Diamant has chosen to look for evidence of nationalism in the state and society's treatment of veterans and military families. Drawing on an impressive array of archival and published sources, Diamant skillfully presents and analyzes anecdotal evidence to show us how Chinese veterans have been treated and what this tells us about China's Communist Party, its state bureaucracy, and society. Aside from the introduction and conclusion, the book includes seven chapters dealing with various aspects of the veteran and military family experience: rural veterans' quest for urban residence; the complications of veteran identity; the difficulties of finding employment; the dismal cracks and loopholes in policy and the bureaucracy; issues of health, family, and sexuality; failure on the part of the state and society to care for or even respect military families; and the problems of veterans in the reform era.

Throughout the book, Diamant convincingly makes the case that Chinese veterans have been, and continue to be, poorly treated. Most of China's veterans were from the countryside. When they were demobilized they were returned to their villages, although many (perhaps most) would have preferred to pursue higher incomes and more comfortable lives in the cities. Diamant describes both the challenges of re-integrating into rural life after military service and rural veterans' attempts to move into the cities, often in violation of Party policy and in the face of severe discrimination in regard to housing and employment. Particularly in the highly politicized 1950s through 1970s, veterans' status and identity was complicated by their expectations, habits of life and behavior learned in the military, and, for some, the contradiction between their service to the revolution and their landlord or bourgeois class background. A lack of connections (a function of having been away from home for years or of trying to make their way somewhere other than their native place), low educational levels, lack of job skills and openly expressed prejudice on the part of bureaucrats and employers often left veterans out in the cold. Policies regarding resettlement, benefits, and employment were purposely vague, which left the policy implementation to the discretion of cash-strapped, unsympathetic lower-level bureaucrats.

Diamant succeeds brilliantly in making the case that China's veterans have been shabbily treated, both by the Party, their government, and their fellow-citizens. He also draws on secondary literature and on his experience as a veteran of the Israeli army to put...