China's Quest: The History of the Foreign Relations of the People's Republic of China

The evolution of the the People's Republic of China in world politics is an epic story and one of the most important developments in modern world history. Yet to date, there are no authoritative histories of China's foreign relations. John Garver's monumental China's Quest fills this lacuna and draws from memoirs by Chinese leaders and diplomats, including those written by several foreign ministers, as well as significant new archival material. Garver situates the history of PRC foreign relations in a central drama of the 20th century: the rise and fall of Communist ideology. This new and revised edition includes an additional chapter and new analysis, which address China's strategies in the aftermath of the Western economic crisis, Xi Jinping's embrace of assertive nationalism, the "China Dream" and restoration of China's leading global status, and the "One Belt, One Road" and "communities of common destiny" initiatives. The summation of Garver's fifty-year study of Chinese foreign relations, China's Quest is an expansive and conceptually powerful resource for everyone interested in China's role in the world.

Table of Contents:
1. Introduction: The Embrace of Communism and Its Consequence Act I: Forging a Revolutionary State 2. Joining the Socialist Camp, 1949-1950 3. War in Korea and Indochina, 1950-1953 4. The Bandung 5. The Sino-Soviet Schism: the race to communism and great power status, 1956-1958 6. Sino-Indian Conflict and the Sino-Soviet 7. Reviving Revolutionary Momentum, 1962-1965 8. Revolutionary China's Quest to Transform Southeast Asia 9. Countering the US in Vietnam: Proxy War with the United 10. The Cultural Revolution 11. Rapprochement with the United States, 1970-1972 12. Countering Soviet Encirclement and Trying to Preserve Mao's Legacy Act II: The Happy Interregnum; the Possibility of Liberation Opens 13. Opening to the Outside World 14. China's Pedagogic War with Vietnam 15. The Strategic Triangle and the Four Modernizations 16. Rapprochement with Asian Powers: Soviet Union, India, Iran and Japan Act III: The Leninist State Besieged; Socialism in One Country 17. The CCP's Near Escape and Its Aftermath 18. The Diplomacy of Damage Control 19. The Crisis Deepens: Collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe and the USSR 20. Constraining Unipolarity in a Unbalanced International System 21. China and American Hegemony in the Persian Gulf 22. The Recovery of Hong Kong 23. Military Confrontation with the United States over Taiwan 24. China's Long Debate over Policy toward the United States 25. China's Emergence as a Global Economic and Military Power 26. Reassuring and Unnerving the Neighbors: Japan 27. Reassuring and Unnerving the Neighbors: India 28. Xi Jinping and the Great Rejuvenation of the Chinese Nation 29. China's Quest for Modernity and the Tides of World History

About the Author :
John W. Garver is Emertius Professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Review :
"Garver readily admits that it is a challenge to cover in-depth all possible aspects of China's foreign policy. He instead emphasizes that the purpose of the book is to examine the 'logic and practice of prc foreign policy.' To this end, he indeed has succeeded." -- Journal of American-East Asian Relations "China's Quest lives up to the definitive comprehensiveness suggested by its subtitle. This superb, lengthy volume knits together thick descriptions of events in China from 1949 until today into a clear, compelling narrative." -- Foreign Affairs "The culmination of a career of prodigious scholarship, this magnum opus consolidates John Garver's position as a leader in the field of modern china's foreign relations. Featuring fresh analyses that challenge conventional wisdom, the book provides answers to many puzzles from the past and explores vexing questions of Beijing's contemporary policies. All scholars and practitioners serious about understanding the People's Republic of China's long and tortuous ascent to global power status must read this epic study." -- David Shambaugh, George Washington University and the Brookings Institution; author of China Goes Global "The history of Chinese foreign policy from 1949 to today may look like a bewildering series of ideological twists and turns. But Garver's clear-eyed narrative shows that Beijing always pursued the regime's survival interests and the country's strategic interests, in the face of challenges that shifted from American anti-communism to Soviet anti-Maoism to American democracy promotion. His book provides an essential foundation for understanding the motives of Chinese foreign policy past, present, and future." -- Andrew J. Nathan, Class of 1919 Professor of Political Science, Columbia University, and co-author of China's Search for Security "In China's Quest, John W. Garver distills a lifetime of learning into crystalline form. He emphasizes the communist leadership's instrumental use of assertive nationalism as a primary means for legitimating its authoritarian Leninist-style rule in the process of China's ascent to its present status as a global power." -- Steven I. Levine, co-author of Arc of Empire and, with primary author Alexander Pantsov, of Mao: The Real Story and Deng Xiaoping "John Garver provides readers with an admirable antidote to China's increasingly one-sided propaganda about the glorious history of its foreign policy. This easy-to-read, wide-ranging book avoids polemics and arms readers to refute distortions with well-balanced arguments backed by carefully marshaled evidence. Those looking for a single overview that does not hesitate to address today's most contentious themes are likely to find satisfaction in this book." -- Gilbert Rozman, Musgrave Professor of Sociology, Princeton University