China Builds the Bomb

by John W. Lewis, Litai Xue

A Stanford University Press classic.

Genres: China, Nonfiction, History

368 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

Dr. John Wilson Lewis was an American political scientist who taught at Cornell University (Ithaca, New York) from 1961 to 1968. In 1968 he joined the faculty of Stanford University (Stanford, California), where he became the William Haas Professor of Chinese Politics. While at Stanford he became founding director of the Center for East Asian Studies, serving until 1970 when he, along with the theoretical physicist Professor Sidney D. Drell, co-founded Stanford’s Center for International Security and Arms Control, which in 1983 became the Center for International Security and Cooperation. He served as a co-director of the latter until 1991. From 1983 to 1990, Professor Lewis headed the Northeast Asia-United States Forum on International Policy (now the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center).

Reviews

[William Alberque · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting read, but I think the authorship is hopelessly compromised by the nature of the sources involved. In other words, I think the English language author had to sacrifice a good deal of integrity (honesty, accuracy) in order to get at the information. I would be curious to read something if he decided to burn the bridges he built, because I think he knows a good deal more than he lets on. Some of it is hinted at (unspeakable barbarity in the use of labor, unsafe practices, insane political decisions, etc. - even worse than the U.S. decisions and practices, which, as we all know, were awful), but much more is visible below the surface. The final result is the knowledge that a few brilliant individuals forced China into the modern age in spite of, and not because of, the rest of Chinese leadership, their political climate and their times. The decision to sequester the main part of the nuclear effort in the hinterlands contributed to some suffering, but, if it had been based in Beijing, they would never have gotten anywhere, so bad was the political meddling in scientific fields.

[Yao Haoyu · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting read!But I think if you want to understand Chinese nuclear think deeply ,please read more chinese book ,This one is not enough.

[Eric · Rating 2 out of 5]

A military history professor recommended this book as a seminal work on China's nuclear program. It's very dry, but has some interesting information overall.