Chou En-Lai and the Opening to the West
Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the grand strategy and statecraft of Chou En-lai during the late 1960s and early 1970s. The paper will identify the national interests of China, the goals and objectives of Chou En-lai, and the instruments of statecraft that led to a reversal in United States policy and its formal recognition of the communist dominated People's Republic of China. China viewed herself as a nation who possessed a tremendous level of self-sufficiency. Additionally, China consistently held to a belief of Chinese cultural superiority comparative to any western society. Then what could lead China towards a rapprochement in her relations with the United States and other nations of the Western World? As will be discussed in this paper, the author believes the principal motivation for Chou En-lai's grand strategy and the ultimate opening to the west became the fundamental issues of survival and national security. It is essential to acknowledge three of the significant forces which were at work in Chou's mind, those of nationalism, emergence from the cultural revolution, and Marxist-Communist ideologies. Internally, the Cultural Revolution had dramatically reduced the power of China's party and government apparatuses and in its trail left considerable disarray. This fact combined with the deteriorating status of relations with the Soviet Union proved to be the overriding determinate for Chou En-lai's national strategy formulations.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 08, 1989
- Accession Number
- ADA436984
Entities
People
- Dallas G. Wilfong Iii
Organizations
- National War College