China's Quest

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.

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

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