Asian History

br Asian History -The Great Wall and the Empty Fortress (1 )Thesis : What is the author talking about ? Summarize concisely the central arguments of the book in at most two pages

Introduction

Fortunately or unfortunately China has gone through the mill , since the Revolution heralded under the leadership of Mao . The foreign policy under such circumstances becomes the issue both for the formulators of the policy of the country and the countries towards which it is aimed at . Such relations vary from country to country depending upon the political interests

. It has to be viewed strategically . The authors try to define China 's motives in evolving and executing its foreign policy Wise leadership of any country charters is polity on realistic basis The security concerns of the country are known only to its top rung Other countries may have differences of opinion , but the country 's real interests are best known to its leadership . There are always more important and less important countries as for the foreign relations From the point of view of China , USA , Japan and USSR are the important countries and the foreign policy as for these countries , has to be formulated taking into consideration several complicated issues having permanent value and time-value . China also had some very special problems , like Hong Kong and Taiwan . These two territories tendered three-dimensional problems before China - economics , territorial integrity and military power

The authors provide an authentic analysis of the foreign policy of China . The dilution of the Communist ideology in USSR had the far-reaching implications on the foreign policy of China . The once-close political allies , under the common flag of Communism , turned antagonistic competitors and this happened within a short period of 30 years . Are China and the United States proceed on the path to confrontation and are their differences irreconcilable ? One can 't dispute the author 's claim that China is one of the great powers of the twenty-first century , and their argument that China deserves to be fully integrated into the world community is based on good reasoning and it is the pragmatic approach . It is a regional power with global presence from the vantage point standing at the periphery of world affairs , from another at the center (Nathan , 1997 ,

.3 ) China has never been a homogenous country , its history is full of contradictions and conflicts but the Authors state that China never had it as good as in the last 150 years . Conditions obtaining today have much improved as compared to the past . But its silent transformation from hard-core Communism , to capitalistic structure , without political democracy , is one of the important contradictions , and it has serious social implications . The right-wingers of USA harping on the China-threat need to make a good study of the book , to understand that China can not afford to have ambitions disproportionate to its capabilities . The suspicion of Communist plotting is the theme of the bygone era . In the nuclear age any such adventure is nothing short of inviting ultimate destruction . In...