The United States and China

Bol Partner

In 1899, the United States declared the Open Door policy, proclaiming its commitment to the preservation of China's national integrity. A year later, the United States helped to quash the Boxer rebellion in Peking, a revolt which had threatened American business interests. Of these two contradictory aims displayed by U.S. foreign policy--generous friendship and aggressive self-interest--it is the latter that has prevailed and defined American policy toward China, maintains Chinese historian Arnold Xiangze Jiang. The United States and China is the first comprehensive study in English of the tumultuous history of Sino-American relations from a Chinese perspective. Jiang critically examines U.S. foreign policy toward China from the eighteenth century to the Reagan-Deng years, illustrating how America's presence, influence, and pressure have shaped the history and politics of China. At the same time, Jiang's account is an illuminating and insightful synthesis of Chinese historiography since 1949--history as it has been taught in the People's Republic of China.

Bol

Now fully revised and updated, The United States and China offers a comprehensive synthesis of US-Chinese relations from initial contact to the present. Balancing the modern (1784–1949) and contemporary (1949–present) periods, Dong Wang retraces centuries of interaction between two of the world’s great powers from the perspective of both sides. She examines state-to-state diplomacy, as well as economic, social, military, religious, and cultural interplay within varying national and international contexts. As China itself continues to grow in global importance, so too does the US-Chinese relationship, and this book provides an essential grounding for understanding its past, present, and possible futures.