China's Road to the Korean War Revisited. CHEN. JIAN. When China entered
the Korean War in October 1950, the newly established People's Republic of
China (PRC) had just celebrated its first anniversary. Mao Zedong's revolutionary
Author: William Stueck
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
" The Korean War in World History features the accomplishments of noted scholars over the last decade and lays the groundwork for the next generation of scholarship. These essays present the latest thinking on the Korean War, focusing on the relationship of one country to the war. William Stueck’s introduction and conclusion link each essay to the rich historiography of the event and suggest the war’s place within the history of the twentieth century. The Korean War had two very different faces. On one level the conflict was local, growing out of the internal conditions of Korea and fought almost entirely within the confines of a small Asian country located far from Europe. The fighting pitted Korean against Korean in a struggle to determine the balance of political power within the country. Yet the war had a huge impact on the international politics of the Cold War. Combat threatened to extend well beyond the peninsula, potentially igniting another global conflagration and leaving in its wake a much escalated arms race between the Western and Eastern blocs. The dynamics of that division remain today, threatening international peace and security in the twenty-first century. Contributors: Lloyd Gardner, Chen Jian, Allan R. Millett, Michael Schaller, and Kathryn Weathersby
See Du, “Political Mobilization and Control,” 66–67; Chen, China's Road to the Korean War, 145. See Hao and Zhai, “China's Decision to Enter the Korean War,”
112; Bin, Yu, “What China Learned from Its 'Forgotten War' in Korea,” in Chinese
Author: Markus B. Liegl
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
This book explains why China has resorted to the use of large-scale military force in foreign affairs. How will China use its growing military might in coming crisis and existing conflicts? This book contributes to the current debate on the future of the Asia-Pacific region by examining why China has resorted to using military force in the past. Utilizing fresh theoretical insights on the causes of interstate war and employing a sophisticated methodological framework, the book provides detailed analyses of China’s intervention in the Korean War, the Sino-Indian War, China’s border clashes with the Soviet Union and the Sino-Vietnamese War. It argues that China did not employ military force in these wars for the sake of national security or because of material issues under contestation, as frequently claimed. Rather, the book’s findings strongly suggest that considerations about China’s international status and relative standing are the principal reasons for China’s decision to engage in military force in these instances. When reflecting the study’s central insight back onto China’s contemporary territorial conflicts and problematic bilateral relationships, it is argued that the People’s Republic is still a status-seeking and thus highly status-sensitive actor. As a result, China’s status ambitions should be very carefully observed and well taken into account when interacting with the PRC. This book will be of much interest to students of Chinese foreign policy, Asian politics, military and strategic studies and IR in general.
In the meantime, readers may wish to consult the following recent publications
using other new sources from China and Russia in order to place this new
evidence in a broader context: Chen Jian, China's Road to the Korean War: The
Author: James G. Hershberg
Publisher: DIANE Publishing
Covers recently released historical materials on Cold War history emerging from previously inaccessible sources on "the other side" -- the former Communist bloc. Covers: Stalin's conversations with Chinese leaders, 1949-1953; new evidence on the Korean War; new Chinese sources (CCP foreign relations, the 2nd historical archives of China); new evidence on Sino-Soviet relations; new evidence on Sino-American relations (Taiwan Straits crisis of 1958; Khrushchev's nuclear promise to Beijing); new evidence on Vietnam/Indochina wars.
Based on sources that include recently declassified Chinese documents, the book offers pathbreaking insights into the course and outcome of the Cold War.
Author: Jian Chen
Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press
This comprehensive study of China's Cold War experience reveals the crucial role Beijing played in shaping the orientation of the global Cold War and the confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union. The success of China's Communist revolution in 1949 set the stage, Chen says. The Korean War, the Taiwan Strait crises, and the Vietnam War--all of which involved China as a central actor--represented the only major "hot" conflicts during the Cold War period, making East Asia the main battlefield of the Cold War, while creating conditions to prevent the two superpowers from engaging in a direct military showdown. Beijing's split with Moscow and rapprochement with Washington fundamentally transformed the international balance of power, argues Chen, eventually leading to the end of the Cold War with the collapse of the Soviet Empire and the decline of international communism. Based on sources that include recently declassified Chinese documents, the book offers pathbreaking insights into the course and outcome of the Cold War.
Presents a review by Donald W. Boose, Jr. of five books that focus on the international aspects of the Korean War (1950-1953).
Presents a review by Donald W. Boose, Jr. of five books that focus on the international aspects of the Korean War (1950-1953). Reviews "The Korean War: An International History" by William Stueck, "China's Road to the Korean War: The Making of the Sino-American Confrontation" by Chen Jian, "Mao's Military Romanticism: China and the Korean War, 1950-1953" by Zhang Shu Guang, and "Communist Logistics in the Korean War" by Charles R. Shrader.
See, for example, A. Rotter, The Path to Vietnam: Origins ofthe American
Commitment to Southeast Asia (Ithaca and London: ... Mao's Military
Romanticism: China and the Korean War, 1950–1953 (Lawrence, KS: University
Press of Kansas, ...
Author: Laura M. Calkins
Category: Social Science
This book charts the development of the First Vietnam War – the war between the Vietnamese Communists (the Viet Minh) and the French colonial power – considering especially how relations between the Viet Minh and the Chinese Communists had a profound impact on the course of the war. It shows how the Chinese provided finance, training and weapons to the Viet Minh, but how differences about strategy emerged, particularly when China became involved in the Korean War and the subsequent peace negotiations, when the need to placate the United States and to prevent US military involvement in Southeast Asia became a key concern for the Chinese. The book shows how the Viet Minh strategy of all-out war in the north and limited guerrilla warfare in the south developed from this situation, and how the war then unfolded.
7Chen Jian, China's Road to the Korean War: The Makingof the Sino American
Confrontation (New York: Columbia University Press, 1994), 33–44. 8 See Nancy
B.Tucker, Patterns in the Dust: Chinese–American Relations andthe Recognition
Author: Chi-kwan Mark
The emergence of China as a dominant regional power with global influence is a significant phenomenon in the twenty-first century. Its origin could be traced back to 1949 when the Chinese Communist Party under Mao Zedong came to power and vowed to transform China and the world. After the ‘century of humiliation’, China was in constant search of a new identity on the world stage. From alliance with the Soviet Union in the 1950s, China normalized relations with America in the 1970s and embraced the global economy and the international community since the 1980s. This book examines China’s changing relations with the two superpowers, Asian neighbours, Third World countries, and European powers. China and the World since 1945 offers an overview of China’s involvement in the Korean War, the Sino-Soviet split, Sino-American rapprochement, the end of the Cold War, and globalization. It assess the roles of security, ideology, and domestic politics in Chinese foreign policy and provides a synthesis of the latest archival-based research on China’s diplomatic history and Cold War international history This engaging new study examines the rise of China from a long-term historical perspective and will be essential to students of Chinese history and contemporary international relations.
1 On the Korean War and China's involvement, see Sergei N. Goncharov, John
W. Lewis, and Xue Litai, Uncertain Partners: Stalin, Mao, and the Korean War (
Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1993); and Chen Jian, China's Road to the ...
Author: Jean-Marc F. Blanchard
Category: Political Science
Numerous crosswinds are buffeting the more than 40-year-old People's Republic of China--American relationship, yet only once since Nixon’s historic trip to China in 1972 has a major conflagration seemed a real possibility. Anchoring the relationship throughout multiple storms are the two countries’ broad areas of collaboration such as deep links in culture, economics, and education. However, for some observers, the conflictual aspects of the relationship seem to be gaining prominence. Conflict and Cooperation in Sino-US Relations offers a timely and current look at one of the world’s weightiest bilateral relationships. It goes beyond detailing the conflict and cooperation that have been integral facets of China--US interactions since 1972, to gauging the relationship's evolution and future trends, examining its nuances regarding diverse issues such as the Asia-Pacific leadership structure, the South China Sea, and the Korean peninsula. The book further delves into the causes of conflict and cooperation, offers diverse solutions for tempering frictions between Beijing and Washington, and considers the efficacy of some of the mechanisms (e.g., military-to-military exchanges) that China and the US currently employ to manage their relationship.The chapters suggest that extreme anxieties about China--US relations may be misplaced, but that there nonetheless are some worrisome signs even in areas like economics and the environment that are perceived as naturally cooperative. While the book does not offer any silver bullets, various contributors contend that successful management of Sino-American relations may require greater American accommodation of China’s interests. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of Chinese politics, American politics, international relations, and Asian studies, as well as to policy-makers working in the field.
... Psychology of the Korean War: The Role of Ideology and Perception in China's
Entry into the War,” Journal of Conflict ... Hunt, “Beijing and the Korean Crisis,”
464; Chen Jian, China's Road to the Korean War, 158; idem, “China's Changing
Author: Robert Beisner
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Category: Biography & Autobiography
Dean Acheson was one of the most influential Secretaries of State in U.S. history, presiding over American foreign policy during a pivotal era - the decade after World War II when the American Century slipped into high gear. During his vastly influential career, Acheson spearheaded the greatest foreign policy achievements in modern times, ranging from the Marshall Plan to the establishment of NATO. Now, in this monumental biography, Robert L. Beisner paints an indelible portrait of one of the key figures of the last half-century. In a book filled with insight based on research in government archives, memoirs, letters, and diaries, Beisner illuminates Acheson's policy-making, describing how he led the state department and managed his relationship with Truman, all to illuminate the vital policies he initiated in his years at State. The book examines Acheson's major triumphs, including the highly underrated achievement of converting West Germany and Japan from mortal enemiesto prized allies, and does not shy away from examining his missteps. But underlying all his actions, Beisner shows, was a tough-minded determination to outmatch the strength of the Soviet bloc - indeed, to defeat the Soviet Union at every turn. The emotional center of the book focuses on Acheson's friendship with Truman. No pair seemed so poorly matched - one, a bourbon-drinking mid-Westerner with a homespun disposition, the other, a mustachioed Connecticut dandy who preferred perfect martinis - yet no such team ever worked better together. Acheson's unstinting dedication to an often unpopular president was reciprocated with deep gratitude and loyalty. Together, they redrew the map of the post-war world. Over six foot tall, with steel blue, "merry, searching eyes" and a "wolfish" grin, Dean Acheson was an unforgettable character - intellectually brilliant, always debonair, and tough as tempered steel. This lustrous portrait of an immensely accomplished and colorful life is the epitome of the biographer's art.
Crosses the Yalu: The Decision to Enter the Korean War (New York: Macmillan,
1960);Chien Jian, China's Road to the ... 1994); Hao Yufan and Zhai Zhihai, “ China's Decision to Enter the Korean War: History Revisited,” The China
(1994) China's Road to the Korean War: The Making of the Sino-American
Confrontation. Columbia University Press. Cumings, Bruce. (1981) The Origins of
the Korean War: Liberation and the Emergence of Separate Regimes. Princeton,
Author: Steven Hugh Lee
Tens of thousands of US soldiers and untold millions of Koreans died in this war the first major arena of the East-West conflict. This concise international history of the war offers a new approach to its understanding, tracing its origins and dynamics to the interplay between modern Korean history and twentieth century world history. The narrative also uniquely examines the social history of the conflict, and includes material on the newly racially integrated US fighting forces, war and disease, women and war and life in the Prisoner of War camps. While most surveys stop at 1953, with the signing of the armistice, Steven Hugh Lee carries the story through to the Geneva Conference in the spring of 1954 the last major international effort before recent years to negotiate a permanent peace for the Korean peninsula.
16 For example, most of the output from North Korea's big Hungnam explosives
plant was shipped to China for the PLA. See The Origins of the Korean War, Vol.
2, by Bruce Cumings (Princeton, 1981), 358–359. 17 China's Road to the Korean
Author: Edward Timperlake
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
The bestselling authors of The Year of the Rat expose how the Clinton administration helped Communist China achieve its military ambitions.
For examination of China's involvement in the Korean War see Allen Whiting,
China Crosses the Yalu: The Decision to Enter the Korean War (Stanford:
Stanford University Press, 1960); Chen Jian, China's Road to the Korean War:
The Making ...
Author: Nicholas Khoo
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Although the Chinese and the Vietnamese were Cold War allies in wars against the French and the Americans, their alliance collapsed and they ultimately fought a war against each other in 1979. More than thirty years later the fundamental cause of the alliance's termination remains contested among historians, international relations theorists, and Asian studies specialists. Nicholas Khoo brings fresh perspective to this debate. Using Chinese-language materials released since the end of the Cold War, Khoo revises existing explanations for the termination of China's alliance with Vietnam, arguing that Vietnamese cooperation with China's Cold War adversary, the Soviet Union, was the necessary and sufficient cause for the alliance's termination. He finds alternative explanations to be less persuasive. These emphasize nonmaterial causes, such as ideology and culture, or reference issues within the Sino-Vietnamese relationship, such as land and border disputes, Vietnam's treatment of its ethnic Chinese minority, and Vietnam's attempt to establish a sphere of influence over Cambodia and Laos. Khoo also adds to the debate over the relevance of realist theory in interpreting China's international behavior during both the Cold War and post-Cold War eras. While others see China as a social state driven by nonmaterial processes, Khoo makes the case for viewing China as a quintessential neorealist state. From this perspective, the focus of neorealist theory on security threats from materially stronger powers explains China's foreign policy not only toward the Soviet Union but also in relation to its Vietnamese allies.
Goulden,Korea: theUntoldStory of the War (NewYork: Times Books,1982).
Thischapter is basedheavily on recent works on the Korean War. See Chen Jian, China's Road to the Korean War: The Makingofthe SinoAmerican Confrontation (
Author: Huiyun Feng
Examining the major academic and policy debates over China’s rise and related policy issues, this book looks into the motivations and intentions of a rising China. Most of the scholarly works on China’s rise approach the question at a structural level by looking at the international system and the systemic impact on China’s foreign policy. Traditional Realist theorists define China as a revisionist power eager to address wrongs done to them in history, whilst some cultural and historical analyses attest that China’s strategic culture has been offensive despite its weak material capability. Huiyun Feng’s path-breaking contribution to the debate tests these rival hypotheses by examining systematically the beliefs of contemporary Chinese leaders and their strategic interactions with other states since 1949 when the communist regime came to power. The focus is on tracing the historical roots of Chinese strategic culture and its links to the decision-making of six key Chinese leaders via their belief systems. Chinese Strategic Culture will be of interest to students of Chinese politics, foreign policy, strategic theory and international relations in general.
China into the Korean War fundamentally because he saw Western imperialism
as the main enemy of the Chinese people ... Chen Jian , China's Road to the Korean War : The Making of the Sino - American Confrontation ( Columbia
Author: Colin Mackerras
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Completely revised and updated, the New Cambridge Handbook of Contemporary China is an indispensable and manageable guide to the world's most populous nation. Emphasising the period from the 1990s, the book covers and includes the following subjects: a chronology detailing events since 1949; politics and law; biographies of eminent individuals; an annotated bibliography of books, journals and websites relevant to China in the 1990s and beyond; foreign relations, especially with the United States and Russia; the economy, including China's main economic reform programs and objectives; education; population and a gazetteer. With an excellent selection of figures, diagrams and maps, this book will be the standard reference to contemporary China for students, teachers, journalists, travelers, academic and government researchers, business people, policy-makers and general readers.
Enter the Dragon examines the Chinese side of the Korean War for the first time, re-creating and dramatizing Communist China's reluctant role in the undeclared war against the U.S. in Korea.
Author: Russell Spurr
The Korean War was, years before Vietnam, the first great East-West military misadventure, eventually engaging sixteen countries under the U.N. flag in war against China and North Korea. Enter the Dragon examines the Chinese side of the Korean War for the first time, re-creating and dramatizing Communist China's reluctant role in the undeclared war against the U.S. in Korea. Russell Spurr's military classic is drawn from firsthand recollections of observers and participants on both sides, and focuses on six pivotal months, beginning in August 1950, when China first deliberated intervention, through their first strike in October, to the standstill at the end of January 1951.Based on five years of research and over 20 fact-finding trips to the People's Republic of China and Korea, Enter the Dragon describes why China became involved in Korea and how its strategy evolved, and recreates life on the front lines, conference rooms, and in the streets of the embattled cities. Spurr discovers a growing underground movement among the Chinese to re-evaluate their position in the Korean War, and contends that had the U.N. forces, led by General MacArthur, stayed on their side of the parallel, China would not have joined the North Korean action.
This comprehensive volume traces the Chinese military and its experiences over the past 2,500 years, describing clashes with other kingdoms and nations as well as internal rebellions and revolutions.
Author: Xiaobing Li
This comprehensive volume traces the Chinese military and its experiences over the past 2,500 years, describing clashes with other kingdoms and nations as well as internal rebellions and revolutions. * Approximately 300 A–Z entries covering China's military tradition over the past 2,500 years * Contributions from over 50 distinguished international scholars from China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, Great Britain, Canada, and the United States * Maps of China and Asia, depicting provinces and major cities, major battles and campaigns, and disputed borders * Photographs of military leaders, soldiers, weapon systems, and battle grounds * Selected multicultural bibliography of research materials from the field of military history, both in English and in Chinese * A helpful appendix of Chinese dynasties
The Korean War Through Literature and Art Philip West, Suh Ji-moon, Donald
Gregg ... Chen Jian's book China's Road to the Korean War is an example here,
as is Robert Futrell's The United States Air Force in Korea, 1950– 1953; so is my
Author: Philip West
In contrast to the many books that use military, diplomatic, and historic language in analyzing the Korean War, this book takes a cultural approach that emphasizes the human dimension of the war, an approach that especially features Korean voices. There are chapters on Korean art on the war, translations into English of Korean poetry by Korean soldiers, and American soldier poetry on the war. There is a photographic essay on the war by combat journalist and Pulitzer Prize winning photographer Max Desfor. Another chapter includes and analyzes songs on the Korean War - Korean, American, and Chinese - that illuminate the many complex memories of the war. There is a discussion of Korean films on the war and a chapter on Korean War POWs and their contested memories. More than any other nonfiction book on the war, this one shows us the human face of tragedy for Americans, Chinese, and most especially Koreans. June 2000 was the fiftieth anniversary of the outbreak of the Korean War; this moving volume is intended as a commemoration of it.
But perhaps more consequential was the Cold War, and America's evolving
views of China. By 1964, China had tested nuclear weapons and solidified its ... China's Road to the Korean War, pp. 49–50, 114; and Gordon H. Chang, Friends
Author: Neil Padukone
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Category: Political Science
The Republic of India occupies a key geopolitical and strategic space at the center of the Indian Ocean. How it interacts with the rest of the world will have profound consequences in the 21st century. Beyond South Asia follows the evolution of India's strategic thinking since 1947, providing a comprehensive analysis of its foreign policy worldview. It begins with India's failed attempt to unite and dominate the subcontinent following independence, a strategy that resulted in conflict as its smaller neighbors invited the U.S. and China to the region, resisted intra-regional cooperation, and even violently opposed New Delhi. It then explores how this worldview has shifted as India, needing markets, energy resources, and ways to balance against China, has developed economic and military ties in Central and Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Africa, the southern Indian Ocean, and beyond. To do so has required more stability in South Asia, making India more conciliatory toward other countries of the subcontinent. This is in turn leading to a lessening of tensions, enhanced cooperation, and an economic reintegration of the subcontinent, including a burgeoning détente with Pakistan. This in-depth analysis provides a comprehensive look at the domestic and regional factors that drive India, a key actor in global politics. Written in an accessible manner, it will be of use to students and specialists of Indian foreign policy, South Asian politics, international relations, and security studies and to anyone interested in the future of AfPak, the Indian Ocean region, and America's "strategic pivot."