China's Quest

Reviews / Votes

Garver readily admits that it is a challenge to cover in-depth all possible aspects of China's foreign policy. He instead emphasizes that the purpose of the book is to examine the 'logic and practice of prc foreign policy.' To this end, he indeed has succeeded." * Journal of American-East Asian Relations * China's Quest lives up to the definitive comprehensiveness suggested by its subtitle. This superb, lengthy volume knits together thick descriptions of events in China from 1949 until today into a clear, compelling narrative." * Foreign Affairs * The culmination of a career of prodigious scholarship, this magnum opus consolidates John Garver's position as a leader in the field of modern china's foreign relations. Featuring fresh analyses that challenge conventional wisdom, the book provides answers to many puzzles from the past and explores vexing questions of Beijing's contemporary policies. All scholars and practitioners serious about understanding the People's Republic of China's long and tortuous ascent to global power status must read this epic study." * David Shambaugh, George Washington University and the Brookings Institution; author of China Goes Global * The history of Chinese foreign policy from 1949 to today may look like a bewildering series of ideological twists and turns. But Garver's clear-eyed narrative shows that Beijing always pursued the regime's survival interests and the country's strategic interests, in the face of challenges that shifted from American anti-communism to Soviet anti-Maoism to American democracy promotion. His book provides an essential foundation for understanding the motives of Chinese foreign policy past, present, and future." * Andrew J. Nathan, Class of 1919 Professor of Political Science, Columbia University, and co-author of China's Search for Security * In China's Quest, John W. Garver distills a lifetime of learning into crystalline form. He emphasizes the communist leadership's instrumental use of assertive nationalism as a primary means for legitimating its authoritarian Leninist-style rule in the process of China's ascent to its present status as a global power." * Steven I. Levine, co-author of Arc of Empire and, with primary author Alexander Pantsov, of Mao: The Real Story and Deng Xiaoping * John Garver provides readers with an admirable antidote to China's increasingly one-sided propaganda about the glorious history of its foreign policy. This easy-to-read, wide-ranging book avoids polemics and arms readers to refute distortions with well-balanced arguments backed by carefully marshaled evidence. Those looking for a single overview that does not hesitate to address today's most contentious themes are likely to find satisfaction in this book." * Gilbert Rozman, Musgrave Professor of Sociology, Princeton University *