Zhou Enlai and Chinese Grand Strategy
Abstract
There are comparatively few books about Chinese foreign policy in Chinese or English. Aside from the writings of Mao Zedong, there are virtually no specific books in Chinese about Chinese "grand strategy." Contemporary Chinese writers actually write very little about modern Chinese strategy. When they do investigate the subject, they tend to begin with the late Qing dynasty and focus on events before 1949. There are no memoirs published by Chinese prime ministers or foreign ministers to clarify issues and policies. Foreign writers can only draw analytical inferences from broad Chinese policy statements. There are several reasons for this situation. First, China was largely isolated from the rest of the world between 1949 and the early 1970s. Second, Mao's political and ideological dominance of Chinese society effectively precluded the rise of any novel departures from his highly personalized strategy. Third, China's preoccupation with Marxist orthodoxy and a deterministic view of history further constrained the scope of policy and strategy. Finally, the Chinese have frequently and broadly stated many of their objectives, but they have been exceptionally unwilling to specify their strategies in open sources. The net result has been a paucity of first-hand information about Chinese national security policy and its enabling strategies. When the Nixon administration decided to pursue the normalization of diplomatic relations with China in the early 1970s, the result led to a watershed in Chinese national security policy and, one suspects, a marked change in grand strategy. The reference material for this paper is not primary source material about Zhou Enlai and his grand strategy, but Henry Kissinger's memoirs about Zhou and his journeys to China, and Robert Scalapino's analysis of China and the balance of power. Both writers view the international system in terms of power politics, and ascribe a similar world view to Zhou Enlai and the Chinese.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 1990
- Accession Number
- ADA437113
Entities
People
- Richard J. Latham
Organizations
- National War College