china joins the world: progress and prospectsby elizabeth economy; michel oksenberg;the paradox of...
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China Joins the World: Progress and Prospects by Elizabeth Economy; Michel Oksenberg; TheParadox of China's Post-Mao Reforms by Merle Goldman; Roderick MacfarquharReview by: Lucian W. PyeForeign Affairs, Vol. 78, No. 5 (Sep. - Oct., 1999), p. 184Published by: Council on Foreign RelationsStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20049509 .
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Recent Books
Asia and the Pacific LUC?AN W. PYE
China Joins the World: Progress and Prospects. EDITED BY ELIZABETH ECONOMY
AND MICHEL OKSENBERG. NewYork
Council on Foreign Relations Press,
1999, 260 pp. $22.50 (paper). The Paradox of Chinas Post-Mao Reforms.
EDITED BY MERLE GOLDMAN AND
RODERICK MACFARQUHAR.
Cambridge: Harvard University Press,
1999, 448 pp. $55.00 (paper, $24.95). These two symposium volumes seek to
explain China from different perspectives? but as with the blind men and the elephant, they provide somewhat different pictures. China Joins the World focuses on China's
international relations, askng what
Western policies might induce China to become a constructive participant in
international institutions and regimes. In general, the authors are
optimistic about socializing China in this direction
and see most Chinese officials as anxious
to become effective international players. In contrast, the Goldman-MacFarquhar volume covers the more
problematic
questions of elite politics and the broad
discontent unleashed by economic reforms.
By confronting the problems fragmenting Chinese society, the authors present a less
optimistic picture than Economy and
Oksenberg, but their account also makes
more understandable the xenophobic
explosion after the nato bombing of
China's Belgrade embassy last spring. In a strange way, the two books'
differences mirror a peculiarity in U.S.
China relations. Both governments seem
anxious to separate domestic developments
from interstate relations. The authors in
the Economy-Oksenberg volume hold out
the hope that this is possible, but Goldman and MacFarquhar's authors provide considerable evidence that it is not.
Orphans of the Cold War: America and the
Tibetan Struggle for Survival, byjohn kenneth KNAUS. NewYork
PublicAffairs, 1999,400 pp. $27.50. From 1951 to 1974, the United States pro vided support to the Tibetan resistance,
largely through the c?a. A cia veteran and
the key case officer for Tibet, Knaus tells in
blow-by-blow detail the complex story of
the operations, from the Colorado training of Tibetan fighters and the air drops of
troops and weapons into Tibet to the U.S.
support of the Dalai Lama in India and
diplomatic maneuvers at the United Na
tions. Knaus is unsparing in his criticism
of the cia's mistakes. As one example, he
cites the air drops that attracted flocks of
Tibetans to the drop spots?but then
tragically backfired after they inadvertently alerted the Chinese where to attack. His
story makes it clear, however, that the cia
did not attempt to stir up a rebellion but
supported an essentially Tibetan initiative.
This moving account of the Tibetans'
valiant efforts to resist the Chinese occupa tion captures the daring spirit of the early
Cold War years and the mixture of idealism
and crafty scheming that characterized
American operations at the time. It also
underscores the limited effectiveness of
such covert operations.
The Sacred Willow: Four Generations in the
Life of a Vietnamese Family,
by duong
van mai elliott. New York Oxford
University Press, 1999, 608 pp. $30.00. In this vivid and personal account, Mai
[184] FOREIGN AFFAIRS -Volume 78 N0.5
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