where do I start?
a couple of things you must or might read about China
On 20 April at 1000 eastern, the Chancellor of the College of Information & Cyberspace, Dr. Cassandra Lewis, will discuss the hot topics in cyber and how we cover them in professional military education. If you are interested in cyber—who ISN’T?—do tune in. I will circulate the Timely Topic webinar link next week to those of you on this list. If you know someone else interested in, please let me know.
I want to offer a few books today if you are interested in China or Taiwan. This is no where nearly definitive but these are things on my bookshelf. Any China scholar would offer both criticisms of some (scholars love criticising others) as well as their own list so know this is Cynthia’s alone. If you have access to an academic library, that institution ought have them or be able to acquire them through inter-library loan, one of the true gems of life. If you don’t have that access, I am happy to share mine as long as you get them back to me.
MUST READ MUST READ MUST READ
If you are an educated, literate person in the United States or elsewhere, you must read the ‘Three Communiques’ and the Taiwan Relations Act of 1979. I did not say you must like them but everyone should know what our leaders discussed in the cases of the Communiques (they are not binding in our eyes but they are in Chinese eyes.).
They are contained in a Congressional Research Service Report by Kerry Dumbaugh, ‘The Taiwan Relations Act, the U.S.-China Communiques, and the ‘Six Assurances’, 21 May 1998, retrieved at https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metacrs695/m1/1/high_res_d/96-246f_1998May21.pdfthe
1972 ‘Shanghai Communique’ between Richard Nixon and Mao Zedong/Zhou Enlai.
The 1979 ‘Normalisation Communique’ between Jimmy Carter and Deng Xiaoping.
The 1982 ‘Shanghai Communique’ between Ronald Reagan and Deng Xiaoping/et al.
4. The Taiwan Relations Act of 1979.
The Six Assurances.
The United States says communiques represent what leaders discuss while China sees them as binding commitments. As all of you know, that is impossible for us because in our checks-and-balances system, the pesky idea of a Senate ratifying agreements comes up. But Beijing still tries getting us to acquiesce to their interpretation (won’t happen). The Taiwan Relations Act, of course, is U.S. law superseding communiques.
Our Chinese and Taiwan counterparts know these documents inside and out. It’s not only a pity but bloody foolish for us not to have more literate voters on these points.
What else do I recommend? In no particular order,
Hendrik Schulte Nordholt, China and the Barbarians: Resisting the Western World Order (Leiden: Leiden University, 2018). A former Dutch diplomat, Nordholt writes a lot about the tensions with foreigners and where he thinks it goes into cultural problems.
Richard J. Smith, The Qing Dynasty and Traditional Chinese Culture (London: Rowman & Littlefield, 2015). This explains in pretty succinct terms some of the concepts one hears so much about China inside and out. Really accessibly written.
John Pomfret, The Beautiful Country and the Middle Kingdom: America and China, 1776 to the Present (New York: Henry Holt, 2016). A lot of China specialists poo poo some details in this book but it is an excellent book for non-specialists seeking a chronology. It’s not perfect but no book, sadly, gets everything right all the time, no matter how hard we try.
Klaus Muhlhahn , Making China Modern: From the Great Qing to Xi Jinping (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 2019). I confess: I love this book. It’s way more than most of you will want but worth every morning sitting with coffee consuming it. It shows a China far more involved with the world than John King Fairbanks’ standard treatment in the 1960s. This is part of the ‘revisionist school’ on the Qing. It’s also a tome but worth it.
Bruce A. Elleman and S.C.M. Payne, Modern China: Continuity and Change 1644 to the Present (New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2019). This is a superb general introduction to China during the Qing dynasty and since. Written by two professors at the Naval War College, it is a paperback good for anyone to read.
Barbara Tuchman, Joseph Stilwell and the American Experience in China, 1911-1945 (New York: Random House, 2017). Again the China watching community dislikes this book but it’s a strong narrative on a period when the United States relied on the Nationalists and Chiang Kai-shek before they went to Taiwan.
Stephen R. Platt, Imperial Twilight: The Opium War and the End of China’s Last Golden Age (New York: Knopf, 2018). This explains a lot about why the humiliation scarred China so deeply.
Richard McGregor, The Party: The Secret World of China’s Rulers (New York: Harper Collins, 2010). McGregor dissolves the argument we really saw a non-CCP system at work during the ‘Reform Era’.
Simon Leys China Shadows (London: Penguin, 1978). You want to borrow this as the paperback is $195. One of my absolutely favourite China hands never misses the chance to mention what an influence this book had on his thinking.
Have you read something on the Middle Kingdom you want to recommend to others? Why? Let’s discuss it!! Happy reading. FIN