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Books

How China A NEW COLD WAR: HENRY after being routed by Mao
on all battlefields, was the
played America KISSINGER & THE RISE OF CHINA legitimate government of
Edited by Sanjay Barua &
China.
Rahul Sharma But following Kissing-
EBRUARY 2022 HARPER COLLINS er’s breakthrough visit, the
marks the 50th Rs.799 Pages 295 US immediately proposed
Fanniversary of a the ouster of Taiwan from
historic meeting in Beijing, the UN Security Council
China, between US Presi- and its replacement with
dent Richard Nixon and international diplomacy to The amazing growth the PRC government in
China’s Chairman Mao expound upon the fallout of China into the Beijing. This opened the
Zedong in 1972, which of that great thaw in US- world’s second largest floodgates of American
future historians may well China relations. economy after Nixon/ largesse and bonhomie
mark as an inflection point The galaxy of interna- Kissinger aroused the with PRC. Over the next
in global history. tional policy wonks and sleeping dragon several decades succes-
This event signalled a analysts who have contrib- sive US administrations
rapprochement between uted to Henry Kissinger released high technology
the US and China which and the Rise of China — A Kissinger’s covert visit and weaponry to PRC,
had fought several proxy New Cold War include to China which is mile- “granted MFN (most
wars in Korea (1950), Kishore Mahbubani, stoned, if not celebrated, favoured nation) status
Vietnam (1965-72) and Kanti Bajpai, Rana Mitter, in this volume of essays to China, relaxed Cold
face-offs in lesser battles Sujan Chinoy, Suhasini was driven by his many War rules so that the US
in other countries around Haidar — names perhaps years of study of European and its allies could sell
the world. It was the familiar to Indian readers, balance of power politics. advanced technology to
outcome of top-secret plus US, Singapore, Hong When Richard Nixon was Beijing, provided credits
negotiations between com- Kong, Australia foreign elected president in 1968, so that the Chinese could
munist China’s top leader- policy experts. Their he appointed Kissinger, import US technology,
ship and a clandestine visit impressive credentials are then a Harvard professor and approved World Bank
via Pakistan of Dr. Henry summarised in an index of to break the Soviet/China loans,” writes Kanti Ba-
Kissinger, America’s sec- this compendium. communist nexus. jpai. In 2001, the Clinton
retary of state and a highly Without exception, all To appreciate the administration endorsed
acclaimed foreign affairs of them have contributed historic significance of China’s membership of the
scholar-strategist a year valuable insights explain- the Kissinger/Nixon World Trade Organisation
earlier. ing the rapid rise of the rapprochement with (WTO) which opened the
These first ever meet- People’s Republic of China communist China in the US while Western markets
ings had been initiated by (PRC) from a backward early 1970s, it’s impor- to China’s exports. Clas-
the two American lead- third world country dev- tant to bear in mind that sified as a less developed
ers to cut down to size astated by famines during after 1949 when the Red country, Chinese manufac-
the Soviet Union, with Chairman Mao’s Great Flag was hoisted by Mao tures were exempted from
whom the US had been Leap Forward (1958-60) Zedong in Peking (Bei- import duties in Western
engaged in a prolonged and the Cultural Revo- jing), the US — a staunch markets while Chinese
ideologically-driven Cold lution (1965-75) social ally of pre-communist industry was protected by
War. Last July (2021), to engineering experiments, China, and the Kuomin- high tariff walls.
mark the golden jubilee of into the world’s second tang government led by American expectation
Kissinger’s secret visit to largest economic and Generalissimo Chiang-Kai was that as communist
China which has dramati- military power. The rise Shek during World War China prospered and was
cally changed the balance of modern China began II — hadn’t acknowledged drawn into the global
of global power, public with the Kissinger-Nixon the communist regime. economy, it would relax
intellectuals Sanjaya Baru diplomatic initiative 50 Until Nixon and Mao its communist ideology
and Rahul Sharma com- years ago. Today PRC is a shook hands in Beijing in and transform into a social
missioned this excellent formidable rival to the US 1972, the US continued to democracy and respect
compendium of 19 essays, and has transformed the maintain the fiction that human rights. These
penned by disparate ex- post-World War II global Formosa/Taiwan to which expectations have been
perts in foreign affairs and order. Chiang-Kai Shek retreated totally belied. In retrospect

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