China's Quest: The History of the Foreign Relations of the People's Republic, revised and updated

by John W. Garver

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 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.

Genres: China, History, Politics, Economics, Asia, Nonfiction

888 pages, Hardcover

First published January 4, 2016

Reviews

[Jack Kelley · Rating 4 out of 5]

For my Chinese foreign policy class. engaging for what it is.

[Lukas Wahden · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a big book, in every sense of the word. If taking notes, expect having to invest about five days of full-time labour. A whole lifetime's worth of scholarship on China distilled into 888 utterly dense pages. I'm not aware of the existence of a better researched or more comprehensive work on the PRC's foreign policy after 1949.

[Ernesto López · Rating 5 out of 5]

Si quieres aprender sobre la historia de la política exterior china, compra este libro. Hacía tiempo que buscaba exactamente lo que ofrece el autor: un equilibrio entre la visión panorámica y el análisis detallado. En otras palabras: un libro que cubriese todos los temas clave y, al mismo tiempo, los abordase con profundidad. Y lograr hacer eso con un tema tan extenso tiene muchísimo mérito.
Mi única objeción es que la parte final, centrada en el presente y futuro de China, se queda algo desactualizada a la luz de acontecimientos recientes como el COVID-19 o la agresión rusa a Ucrania. Pero eso es inevitable, ya que el autor escribió el libro antes de que ocurrieran. En cualquier caso, un must-read.

[Karson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic and comprehensive. Meticulously researched (the sources are a gold mine in and of themselves) and insightful. Perhaps most impressively, I felt that Garver communicated the perspectives from which Chinese leaders and people viewed events without caricaturing or moralizing, while also consistently noting with compassion the joys and, more often in this time period, sufferings of the Chinese people as a result of Chinese policies.

[Mills College Library]

327.51009 G2445 2016